Ramana needs draw for crown

HYDERABAD, JANUARY 14: J Venkataramana AP was half a point ahead of his nearest rivals after the penultimate round of the Global Trust Bank All-India Open Chess Tournament. Ramana drew with Bihar8217;s SK Sinha on Friday. Venkataramana now requires only a draw in the final round on Saturday to regain the title which he had won in the first edition in 1997.

Results 10th round: J Venkataramana 8.5 drew with SK Sinha 8, BT Muralikrishnan 8 drew with Varghese Koshy 8 Atanu Lahiri 7.5 drew with TS Ravi 7.5, Tejas Bakre 7.5 drew with Jayant Gokhale 7.5, SS Soman 7 lost to NK Mishra 8, Suvrajit Saha 8 lost to Laltu Chatterjee 7, PDS Girinath 7.5 drew with Vishal Sareen 7.5