Lahiri sneaks into top spot

MUMBAI, December 11: Atanu Lahiri, who considers himself to be an ordinary chess players, has quietly moved up to the leading position wi...

MUMBAI, December 11: Atanu Lahiri, who considers himself to be an ordinary chess players, has quietly moved up to the leading position with 8.5 points when he defeated Mysore’s N Sanjay after the 10th and penultimate round in the Young Challengers-organised Independence Cup Chess Tournament at the Andheri Sports Complex today.

Overnight leader and Lahiri’s teammate in LIC, Sriram Jha suffered his first loss when V Saravanan beat him in 50 moves. Three players are in the second position with eight points — Grandmaster Dibyendu Barua of Tata Steel, Sriram Jha and V Saravanan of IOC.

Saravanan and Jha exchanged their queens early in a Ruy Lopez game. Saravanan ground a win after 50 moves. Two college students from the city caused upsets. Rashmin Pulekar, a 20-year-old third year student of RA Podar defeated IM elect Rahul Shetty of Indian Airlines in 45 moves. Shetty has a rating of 2385 while Pulekar has 2105.

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In the other upset, D Ravishankar (2090) of Mulund College of Commerce defeated K Vishweshwaran (2240) of Tamil Nadu in 32 moves.

Results (10th round)

V Saravanan (2390 international rating points) 8 points bt Sriram Jha (2330) 8 in 50 moves; N Sanjay (2285) 7 lost to Atanu Lahiri (2310) 8.5 in 25 moves; Hari Om Sharma (2235) 7 lost to GM Dibyendu Barua (2540) 8 in 31 moves; Saptarshi Roy Choudhary (2190) 7 drew with IM Shekar Sahu (2290) 7.5 in 35 moves; Ramkrishna Kashelkar (2175) 6.5 lost to IM Sudhakar Babu (2335) 7.5; Valay Parikh (2125) 6 lost to Anup Deshmukh (2430) 7 in 59 moves; IM Verghese Koshy (2340) 7 bt Ravi Bhave (2195) 6 in 31 moves; SJ Kamath (2240) 6.5 drew with Prathamesh Mokal (2175) 6.5 in 58 moves; K Vishweshwaran (2240) 6 lost to D Ravishankar (2090) 7 in 32 moves.