Date:10/03/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/03/10/stories/2008031056052000.htm

Sport - Sports : General

ONGC ‘A’, BPCL share lead

Udhagamandalam: ONGC ‘A’ and BPCL shared the lead with six points apiece at the end of the third round in the 19th Petroleum Sports Promotion Board inter-unit chess tournament, organised by HPCL at the Hotel Monarch here on Sunday.

Lead by Sasikaran Krishnan, ONGC, which boasted of star-studded GMs in its side, took on an equally strong IOCL on Sunday. It was expected to be an open contest. But Koneru Humpy of ONGC ‘A’ ripped open J. Deepan Chakkravarthy’s king side by smartly pushing the ‘f’ and ‘h’ pawns. With the clock ticking fast, Deepan lost a bishop and the game in 36 moves.

The second board between GMs Kunte (IOCL) and Sandipan Chanda (ONGC) meandered into a 25-move draw from a game arising out of the Nizmo-Indian defence.

On the third board, Super GM Sasikaran played an attacking game against GM R.B. Ramesh (IOCL) from the Catalan opening. After a rather quiet start, Sasikaran changed gears, attacking the Black’s king, to succeed in 25 moves.

GM Ganguly Surya Shekhar of IOCL tried his best to salvage some pride against Neelotpal Das (ONGC). His effort went in vain as the game petered out into a draw after 42 moves.

Earlier, BPCL coasted to an easy 4-0 win over Oil India Limited.

The results: Round 3: ONGC ‘A’ 3 bt IOCL 1; BPCL 4 bt Oil India Ltd 0; ONGC ‘B’ 3.5 bt HPCL ‘A’ 0.5; HPCL ‘B’ 1.5 lost to Bongaigaon Refineries PL 2.5; Mangalore RPL 1 lost to IOCL (Assam division) 3; GAIL (India) Ltd. 2 drew with Engineers India Ltd. 2.

PSG Tech prevails

PSG College of Technology edged out Kongu Engineering College (Perundurai) 3-2 in its last super league encounter and emerged the champion of the Tech Hockey League ’08 for the Major Dhyan Chand Memorial Trophy at the PSG Tech grounds in Coimbatore on Sunday. R. Balasundram, General Manager, Lakshmi Precision Tools Ltd (Arasur), gave away the prizes.

The results: Super league: PSG Tech (Cbe) 3 bt KEC (Perundurai) 2. Final standings: 1. PSG Tech 6 pts; 2. Park 4; 3. Kumaraguru CT 4; 4. KEC (Perundurai) 2.