DEC 29: Rajesh and R R Laxman (both TN) and K Ratnakaran (Lakshadweep) are behind Satyapragyan with 5.5 points each.On the top board, Satyapragyan played paulsen variation of the Sicilian Defence. Both played theoretical moves and in the middle game, Rajesh attacked on the kingside with pawns. Satyapragyan countered it well on the queenside and later they agreed for a quick draw on the 20th move.On the second board, Preetham played the dutch defense for Laxman's 1.D4. Both kept all their pieces for a long time with Preetham concentrating on the kingside and Laxman on the queenside. Preetham sacrificed a pawn for gaining development advantage and Laxman accepted it. In an advantageous position, Laxman did not play accurately but Preetham could not capitalise it as he was under time pressure. Then Laxman became a piece up and won on the 57th move.B S Shivananda played the phildor defense against Ratnakaran. Shivananda had cramped position throughout the opening. On the other hand, Ratnakaran wasted many moves. Shivananda later went into severe time pressure and misplaced his Queen. He then allowed an attack and lost an exchange and finally resigned on the 45th move after seeing a possible checkmate in the next.Results: P Rajesh (TN) 5.5 drew Satyapragyan (IA) 6; R R Laxman (TN) 5.5 bt Preetham Sharma (CAPA) 5; K Ratnakar (Lak) 5.5 bt B S Shivananda (Kar) (4.5); K Lakshminarayana (Ker) 4 lost to Pankaj Joshi (Mah) 5; Sourabh Khedekar (Mah) 5 bt Sunil Rangarajan (Kar) 4; Manish Joshi (Wrly) 5 bt Jonathan M Utarid (Kar) 4.; Sunil George (Ker) 4 lost to Ajay Kumar Pande (UP) 5; Akash Thakur (Nag) 5 bt Ramprakash 4; Thej Kumar (Kar) 3.5 lost to M Satyajeet (AP) 4.5; J Ramakrishna (AP) 4.5 bt H D Jagdish (Kar) 3.5.
