Five players share lead

Pallavi Shah left and Ketan Khaire pouring their minds over on the top board game in the Maharashtra State Selection chess tournament.

July 16: Five players shared the lead jointly with six points each at the end of the seventh round of the Maharashtra State Selection Chess Tournament organised by the Bombay Chess Association at the Andheri Stadium Complex, here today.

Leading the bunch were overnight leaders Ketan Khaire Pune and Pallavi Shah Kolhapur, who agreed to a draw in 51 moves in their seventh round clash, along with Shashikant Kutwal Supe-Baramati, Ramkrishna Kashelkar Mumbai, and P G Date Mumbai.

One rung behind the front runners with 5.5 points apiece were Umesh Panbude Nagpur, Vinod Solanki and Salil Surendran both Mumbai. Following them with 5 points each were top seed S S Soman, Pankaj Joshi both Nagpur, Deepak Andurkar, Rashmin Pulekar, Prasad Ghate, Ketan Boricha all Mumbai, H Mandhare Satara, P Mokal and Utpal Sasane Pune.