MUMBAI, JULY 29: Arun Subramaniam maintained his position at the top after the conclusion of the penultimate and fifth round of the play-off league of the Entrant's Division Chess Tournament. Wesley Falcao gave some anxious moments to Arun in the fifth round before playing out a draw at the Zandu Pharmaceutical Canteen on Wednesday. Arun, who has logged 4.5 points so far now holds a slender lead with three players breathing down his neck on 4 points each respectively.Wesley, Prasanna Iyer and Niraj Dube are joint second paving way for a four-cornered contest for the title in the last round.School-kids Vishal Shah, Aditya Vora, Milind Phadnis and Harshavardhan Ambardekar are all placed on the third spot with 3.5 points apiece. All players in the top three positions are assured of promotion fo the Senior Division league which will be played from September 22.On the top board, Wesley with black pieces played well against Arun's d4 opening. A defensive Wesley managed to keep Arun's knight and two rooks away from his field. The latter then exchanged the knight pair and all four rooks to pave way for a king and pawn ending. Realising the equal position, Arun agreed for a draw which came after 56 moves.Results (fifth round)S Arun (4.5) drew with Wesley Falcao (4); Vishal Shah (3.5) drew with Aditya Vora (3.5); Sachin Sale (3) lost to Prasanna Iyer (4); Milind Phadnis (3.5) drew with H Ambardekar (3.5); Niraj Dube (4) bt Nitin Pednekar (3); Manoj Tawade (3) bt R Kulkarni (2.5); Jikku Abraham (3) bt A Leann (2); Mugdha Variyar (2) lost to Jeevan Wagh (3), Dhiraj Gohil (2) lost to Aditya Bhatt (3); S Anoop (2) lost to Milind Ketkar (3); Vishal Sodani (2) lost to Amol Golam (3); Anil Arora (2.5) bt Ketki Kulkarni (2); U Sujit (2) bt Vijay Sherla (1.5); Akshay Bhor (1) lost to Prachi Kushte (2).Fr Agnel triumphFr Agnel, Vashi emerged with flying colours in the Indian Council of Chess Studies' Inter-School Chess tournament which concluded at Date Mangal Karyalaya, Dombivli recently.Fr Agnel students performed creditably in all groups to log 42.5 points and walk away with the team honours. Model English School, Dombivli came second best with 37.5 points.Fr Agnel's Sagar Masurekar claimed the top honours in Group C. Masurekar was tied for the first place with Sagar Sadavarte of Navi Mumbai School but the former was adjudged the winner on the spin of a coin.Top seed Vinay Kumar's (Abhinav Vidyalaya, Dombivli) blunder after being in an advantageous position against school-mate Rohil Bhat proved costly as he ended up handing the Group B title to Bhat. Atomic Energy School's Nimidev calimed the top honours in Group A.Saikumar Ghate (Swami Vivekanand, Chembur), Vaishali Kulkarni (SK Patil, Dombivli) and Priyanka Desai (Fr Agnel) bagged the best girl prizes of Group A, B & C respectively. Prasanna Rao, a Kindergarten student from Don Bosco was awarded a special prize for being the youngest participant of the tournament which featured 25 schools.Final Group StandingsGroup A: Nimidev (6.5), Anish Menon (6), Swapnil Saju (5.5).Group B: Rohil Bhat (6.5), Ninad Puranik (6), Vrushali Kulkarni (5.5)Group C: Sagar Masurekar (4.5), Sagar Sadavarte (4.5), Devendra Sathe (4)
