Date:10/11/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/11/10/stories/2008111061231900.htm

Sport - Chess

Lalith shares lead with Karthikeyan

Principal Correspondent

TADEPALLIGUDEM: Andhra Pradesh’s M.R. Lalith Babu and Tamil Nadu’s P. Karthikeyan emerged joint leaders with seven points after nine rounds in the 38th National junior boys’ and 23rd National junior girls’ chess championship at the Sasi Institute of Technology and Engineering here on Sunday.

The top boards witnessed a couple of interesting games in which M.R. Lalith Babu defeated Navin Kanna in 41 moves and V.A.V. Rajesh drew with Karthikeyan in 65 moves.

Lalith, playing white, in Slav, took advantage of Navin’s dubious move (b4) and exploited his rival’s king side and sacrificed a piece in the 18th move. Lalith played aggressively and pinned the rival’s king in the centre.

The Rajesh vs. Karthikeyan encounter lasted more than four hours in which Rajesh lost his rhythm due to time trouble and settled for a draw.

As many as eight players are in the second slot with 6.5 points in the boys’ section.

Soumya in lead

In the girls’ section, Maharashtra’s Soumya Swaminathan and Kiran Manisha agreed for a quick draw following repetition of moves. Soumya is still in the lead with eight points, followed by Orissa’s Padmini Rout who has seven points.

Important results (ninth round):

Boys: V.A.V. Rajesh (TN) 6.5 drew with P. Karthikeyan (TN) 7; T. Abhay (TN) 6.5 drew with B. Adhiban (TN) 6.5; M.R. Lalith Babu (AP) 7 bt T.U. Navin Kanna (TN) 6; S.P. Sethuraman (TN) 5.5 lost to R. Arun Karthik (TN) 6.5; N. Srinath (TN) 6 drew with Vishnu Prasanna (TN) 6; Sangma Rahul (Del) 6 drew with Swapnil Dhopade (Mah) 6; Shyam Sundar (TN) 6.5 bt Dahale Atul (Mah) 5.5; Akshat Khamparia (MP) 5.5 lost to S. Nitin (TN) 6.5; Sagar Shah (Mah) 5.5 lost to Shyam Nikil (TN) 6.5; Anwesh Upadhyaya (Ori) 5.5 lost to K. Priyadharshan (TN) 6.5; Ashwin Jayaram (TN) 5.5 drew with R. Premnath (TN) 6.5; Jain Shreyansh Daklia (Chat) 6 bt Grover Sahaj (Del) 5; D. Das (Ori) 6 bt Abhilash Reddy (AP) 5; D. Ibrahim (TN) 6 bt Vedprakash (Bih) 5; Y. Sandeep (AP) 6 bt Anand Naik (AP) 5.

Girls: Kiran Manisha (Ori) 6 drew with Soumya Swaminathan (Mah) 8; Ch. Divyasri (AP) 5.5 lost to Padmini Rout (Ori) 7; P. Uthra (TN) 6.5 drew with Meenu Rajendran (Kel) 6; Sathya Priya (TN) 6.5 bt R. Preethi (TN) 5.5; Tejaswini Reddy (AP) 5.5 lost to Mithali Madhukar (Mah) 6.5; N. Raghavi (TN) 6 bt Sai Nirupama (AP) 5; Devangi (Mah) 5 lost to S. Harini (TN) 6; B. Pratyusha (AP) 6 bt Sree Lakshmi (AP) 5; Anjana Phalgunan (Kel) 4 lost to J. Saranya (TN) 5.5; Aparajita (Ori) 5.5 bt R. Karthikeyini (TN) 4.5; R. Salini (AP) 4.5 lost to R. Visalatchi (TN) 5; P.K. Jayashree (TN) 5 bt D. Sayali (Mah) 4; Ch. Savetha (TN) 5 bt I. Uma Kumari (AP) 4; Pallavi (Bih) drew with Chandana (AP) 4.5; G. Nagachandrika (AP) 5 bt Priyamvada (AP) 4.