Bhave joins Tilak on top after six rounds

In joint-second spot with 4.5 points each were Hasan, Ghate — who shared the lead overnight with Tilak, D A Andurkar, Ravi Dongre and Mohan Naik.

Bhave, with black pieces, defended with Sicilian-Pelikan variation against Ghate on the second board. Bhave played an out-of-the-book move (be6) on the 12th to confuse Ghate. Then he exchanged queens and other minor pieces before creating A’ passer to win the game.

On the third board, Andurkar of Reserve Bank defeated N Neelakantan of Central Bank in 58 moves in the Pirc Defence game after the latter missed perpetual checks to draw the game.

Ravidra Dongre defeated L P Khadilkar of RBI with white pieces in 54 moves while unfancied Mohan Naik shocked Fide-Master Sajandas Joshi in 36 moves by playing a perfect rook-ending game.

In joint third position with four points each were Amardeep Bartakke of Satara, Yashraj Aidasani and 14-year-old Mumbai schoolboy Vispy Pardivala who prevailed over Ketan Boricha.

GMP PREVAIL: Greater Mumbai Police B’ outplayed BPCL (Refinery) 4-1 to make the second round of the Air-India Trophy football trophy organised by the MDFA.

Playing at the St Xavier’s Ground (Parel) the cops scored through Sanket Jadhav (2) F Pandurang and Jackson Xavier. M K Male reduced the margin.

MIG TOURNEY: The MIG Cricket Club (Bandra East) will organise the Raju More single-wicket cricket tournament on Thursday May 1 from 9.30 a.m.

Vinod Kambli, Sandip Patil, Sanjay Mangrekar, Chandrakant Pandit, Atul Bedade, Rohan Gavaskar, Amit Pagnis, Manoj Joglekar, Waseem Jaffer, Pravin Amre among others will participat in the knock-out tourney that offers cash awards of Rs 1.10 lakh.

SPORTS MEDICINE : Leading sports medicine and consultant and orthopedic surgeon Dr Dilip Nadkarni will open the Fit India Institute tomorrow. The institute, a sports medicine and fitness unit in Santacruz, will provide advanced advise to sportspersons to improve their physical and mental faculties.

Guidance will be provided on sports fitness, nutrition, psychology and injuries. It will involve rendering a personalised exercise and diet plan to improve performance. Injuries will be treated with the aids of arthoscopy and physiotherapy for rehabilation.

The centre will render free service to indigenous sportspersons (playing kabaddi, kho-kho and others).

SHUKLA PRESIDENT: The Annual General Body Meeting of Western India Racing Journalists’ Association (WIRJA) was held on Tuesday at Mahalakshmi Race Course.

The following office bearers were elected for the year 1997-98:

President: JV Shukla; Jt President: Surendra Dixit; Vice-President: Girish Dixit; Secretary: Usman Rangila; Treasurer: V Zodge; Office secretary: PG Sant; Committee Members: G Albuqerque, Ajmera, M Dwarkanath, R Morparia and S Bijapurkar.