Koshy maintains top spot

The top board match between Koshy and Ramesh ended in a tame draw after both players preferred a theoritically drawish opening variation. In the Classical Catalan opening, Koshy played cautiously. Ramesh, who was in no mood to play his usual offensive game, adopted passive play. When the game reached a balanced position, the IMs agreed for a draw in the 16th move.

IM norm-holder PrakashIndian Bank outmanoeuvred Kerala8217;s MB Muralidharan in an irregular system of King8217;s Indian defensive. Prakash handled his white pieces so meticulously that he got a clear advantage in the early middle game. To gain some counter play, Murali sacrificed his rook for the opponent8217;s knight, which was accepted by Prakash. This exchange was enough for the former National junior champion to score vital full point in the end game.

Former Asian chess queen, Anupama Gokhale BPCL was shocked by Arvind Sastry Mysore. In a keenly fought match against Anupama8217;s d4 opening, Sastry adopted the Sharp Benko gambit. Sastry followed the well analysed variation in this opening to obtain a clear advantage. At the appropriate time, he made an exchange sacrifice to swallow white8217;s pawns one after another. When Anupama found that she could not wriggle out of the lost ending, she resigned on her 40th move.

Chennai youngster Laxmi Narasimhan, who acqquited himself well in the earlier rounds, went down fighting to N SanjayIncome Tax. After enjoying an initial advantage in the c3 system of Sicilian defense, the Chennai boy blundered away a pawn on the rook file when his opponent was in time trouble.

This error was neatly capitalised by experienced Sanjay to score a point.Another interesting match between National champion deaf and dumb K Alaguraja and Asian under-12 bronze medalist, K Deepan Chakravarthy ended in a draw.RESULTS Round 8

Koshy V ONGC 7 drew with RB Ramesh IOC 6.5; GB Prakash Indian Bank 6.5 bt M B Muralidharan Kerala 6; Gokhale Anupama BPCL 5.5 lost to Arvind Sastry Kar 6.5; Laxminarasimhan CNI 5.5 lost to Sanjay N Kar 6; Preetam Sharma CNI 5 lost to Haridoss X TNTC 6; AVK Venkat CNI 5 lost to Kasi AL CNI 6; K Gunasekaran CNI 5.5 drew with K Chakrvarthy Salem 5.5; Ponraj R Cbe 6 bt VKV Sundhan Madurai 5; Ravichandran S CNI 5.5 drew with Praveen Kumar Madurai 5.5; Muruga Cheran Cni 5.5 drew with Srinivasa Raghavan Cni 5; Krirubakaran R Madurai 5 lost toChandrasekaran CNI 6.