Date:06/07/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/06/stories/2008070651621500.htm

Sport - Chess

Second IM norm for Srinath

NEW DELHI: N. Srinath collected his second International Master norm by reaching seven points from nine rounds of the 12-player round-robin tournament in the Brno chess festival in Czech Republic on Friday.

With two rounds to go, the seventh seeded Chennai youngster is half a point ahead of Slovakia’s Zoltan Janko. In the remaining rounds, Srinath is due to play Czech Republic’s Michael Zavadil (2113) and Jakub Lahner (2314).

During his unbeaten run, Srinath stunned top seeded Polish IM Piotr Murdzia in the second round and drew with two other IMs, second seed from Belarus, Sergei Splosnov, and third seeded Bulgarian Bogomil Andonov in the fourth and seventh rounds.

Winner of the World boys’ (under-12) championship in 2005, Srinath made his first IM norm in the Hastings Masters International tournament in January 2007.