IM Babu regains sole lead

PUNE, May 26: International Master N Sudhakar Babu 7 of Indian Bank, Chennai regained his half-point lead inspite of being held to a draw ...

PUNE, May 26: International Master N Sudhakar Babu 7 of Indian Bank, Chennai regained his half-point lead inspite of being held to a draw in the eighth round of S K Vaidya Memorial International Rating chess tournament being played at Arwade High School here today.

Five Players 8211; Atanu Lahiri LIC, Sriram Jha LIC, IM Ravi hegde Union Bank, Roktim Bandopadhyay WB and S K Rathod MP are trailing Babu with six and half points each.

Atanu Lahiri 6.5 employed ultra sharp king8217;s Indian defence against Babu8217;s Samisch system. Atanu sacrificed a pawn to tie down the white army. Babu tried his best to extricate his pieces out of bind, but he could not succeed. Finally he returned the extra pawn and agreed for a draw after 29 moves.

Commonwealth runners-up Chandrashekhar Gokhale 6 employed razor sharp Archangel variation of Spanish opening against Sriram Jha 6.5 of LIC but could not break through on the queen8217;s wing and peace was signed after 18 moves.

Ravi Hegde 6.5 of Union Bank, Bangalore took advantage of Vivek Sthalekar8217;s 5.5 blunder in the Slav defence and inflicted a check- mate in 25 moves. Roktim Bandopadhyay 6.5 of WB came back into reckoning by defeating S R Kidambi 5.5 of Tamil Nadu in Nimzo Indian defence.

Bangladesh8217;s Enamul Hussain 6.5 had to toil hard for six hours to down unseeded V K Venkat 5.5 of TN in Sicilian defence.

RESULTS VIII Round
N S Babu 7; IB drew Atanu Lahiri 6.5; LIC; Sriram Jha 6.5; LIC drew C S Gokhale 6; IA; Ravi Hegde 6.5; UBI b V Sthalekar 5.5; RBI; S C Sahu 6; UBI drew P Mitrakanth 6; NLC; V Koshy 6; ONGC drew Nassin Wajih 6; Raj; S R Kidambi 5.5; TN lost to R Bandopadhyay 6.5; WB; S K Rathod 6.5; MP b R K Mishra 5.5; MP; L Imocha 5; Man lost to G B Prakash 6; IB; J K Choudhary 6; Bih b T S Ravi 5; IOC; N Sanjay 5.5; Kar drew P Mokal 5.5; Mah; J Gokhale 5.5; BPCL drew Amjad Ali 5.5; B8217;desh; V S Negi 5.5; IA draw S Chanda 5.5; WB; S Lahiri 5.5; WB drew S Nasir Ali 5.5; UP; N Neelakantan 5; CBI lost to T V Kartikeyan 6; TN; S K Sinha 6; Bih b D Ravishankar 5; Mah; PDS Girinath 5.5; Rlys b P Tulpule 5; Mah; V Shukla 5.5; UP b D Singh 4.5; UP; A Vaidya 5.5; Mah b V Hiremath 4.5; Mah; R Muralidharan 4.5; TN lost to A Karnataki 5.5; Mah B Ramana Babu 5.5; AP lost to R V Gokhale 4.5; UBI.