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 A8217; 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.