Prasad, Mithrakanth keep up spree

HYDERABAD, Dec 10: INternational masters DV Prasad IOC and and P Mithrakanth NLC continued their victory spree, recording their sixth s...

HYDERABAD, Dec 10: INternational masters DV Prasad IOC and and P Mithrakanth NLC continued their victory spree, recording their sixth straight victories, to stay as joint leaders in the Global Trust Bank international rating chess tournament here today.

Top seed International Master K Sasikiran TN suffered a shocking defeat at the hands of candidate IM Jayant Gokhale BPCL Jayant, who has not been doing very well in last few tournaments, seems to be regaining his confidence.

Against the top seed, he opted for a irregular setup with white pieces and maintained a double edged position in the middle game. A tactical blow caused caused Sasikiran a pawn after which Jayant was at his technical best. The game finally took shape in a rook versus two minor pieces end game where Jayant queened one of his passed pawns to pocket the most sought after point of the tournament.

The win took Jayant to five and half points along with IM Sudhakar Babu Indian Bank and PDS Girinath Railways.

Playing with the white pieces, Prasad adopted the queen pawn opening and was up against the Slav defence of Rahul Shetty IA.

The players followed routine opening moves but Prasad held slight advantage in the ensuing middle game. Shetty defended precisely and exchanged whites dangerously outposted knight. Prasad could not hold on to his own and exchanged his active light squared bishop to allow Shetty a complete control of the only open file.

Shetty retained his advantage after the queens were traded but owing to little complacency allowed Prasad8217;s King to enter into his queen side. BT Muralikrishnan8217;s giant killing run was halted by Mithrakanth who employed his pet Nimzo Indian defence. The opening was an off beat variation that allows easy equality to the black player.

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Mithrakanth took full advantage of the open C file and doubled his rooks to create irresistible threats against the cramped white pieces when Murali Krishna ventured into dangerous territory by pushing his King pawn. In the end Mithrakanth completed the formalties by a queen sacrifice which won him four pieces.

Points position 6th round: DV Prasad 6 points; P Mitrakant 6; Jayant Gokhale 5.5; DS Girinath 5.5; N Sudhakar Babu 5.5; BT Muralikrishnan 5; Roktim Bandopadyay 5; Sai Meera 5; Vishal Sareen 5; SC Gokhale 5; P Konguvel 5; V Koshy 5; Rajesh Dewan 5; S Vijayalakshmi 5; K Visweswaran 5; Rahul Shetty 5; K Murugan 5; Neeraj K Mishra 5; VK Solani 5; Neelotpal Das 5; Sekhar Sahu 5; Anup Deshmukh 5; Sandipan Chanda 5; Ramkrishna Kashel 5; V Hariharan 5; Goswami Vedant 4.5; KN Gopal 4.5; Pallvi Shah 4.5; CH Raja Kumar 4.5; V Saravanan 4.5; Sriram Jha 4.5; RS Gupta 4.5; Aidasani Yashraj 4.5; SV C Chakravarthy 4.5; MV Ramdas 4.5; G Srikant 4.5; Pankaj Joshi 4.5; N Raju 4.5; K Sashikiran 4.5; SJ Kamath 4.5; Gurupreet Palsingh 4.5; RG Hegde 4.5; TS Ravi 4.5; Tanu Lahari 4.5; Manoj Mishra 4.5; GB Joshi 4.5; N Sanjay 4.5; A Kumar 4.5; N Gopala Krishnan 4.5; Nisha Mohota 4.5; Arvind Shastry 4.5; Chole Vikrant 4.5; S Meenakshi 4.5; Satyanaranaya P 4.5.