Barua maintains top position

MUZAFFARPUR, May 9: Grandmaster Dibyendu Barua of West Bengal maintained his half point lead over others when he outplayed International Master Ravi Hegde of Banks Sports Board in the fourteenth round of the 35th National `A’ Chess Championships here today.

While Barua has amassed ten points so far, GM Pravin Thipsay with a tally of 9.5 points is closely following him in the second place. V Saravanan of Petroleum Sports Control Board is in the third spot.

Results: RG Hegde (BSB, 6) lost to D Barua (WB, 10); N Das (WB, 7) lost to PM Thipsay (BSB, 9.5); AP Kunte (PSCB, 8.5) drew with V Saravanan (PSCB 9); K Sasikiran (TN 8.5) drew DV Prasad (PSCB, 6); GB Joshi (IA) drew with K Murugan (NLC, 8); S Saha (Rlys, 7) lost to Lanka Ravi (NLC, 7.5); DK Sharma (UP, 6) drew P Konguvel (PSCB, 7.5); Shankar Roy (Rlys, 4) lost to Anup Deshmukh (LIC, 7.5) and V Koshy (PSCB, 5) drew Vishal Sareen (LIC, 6).