Vishal, Dhiraj among leaders

MUMBAI, JULY 18: Vishal Shah of St Joseph's School (Malad), Dhiraj Gohil of Samrat Vikas Kendra and Manoj Tawade of Ulhasnagar are jointl...

MUMBAI, JULY 18: Vishal Shah of St Joseph’s School (Malad), Dhiraj Gohil of Samrat Vikas Kendra and Manoj Tawade of Ulhasnagar are jointly sharing the lead with four points each at the end of the Group B fourth-round of the Entrant’s Division tournament, organised by the Bombay Chess Association, at the Zandu Pharmaceutical Works Canteen, Sayani Road, yesterday.

With an all-win record Vishal, a fifth Standard student, Gohil and Tawade outwitted Wesley Falcao of Carmelite School (Vasai), Jikku Abraham of National College and Kailas Shelar, respectively.

On the top board second seed Prasanna Iyer of Bhagubhai Polytechnic was held to a draw by Jeevan Wagh of BMC Gymkhana in 55 moves in the rooks and pawns end-game.

Iyer Wagh, Amol Chakradev of CHM College (Ulhasnagar), Sujit Unnikrishnan, Milind Phadnis, Aditya Vora of Don Bosco (Matunga) and Vishal Sodani are placed second with 3.5 points apiece. Sujit in a winning position offered a draw to Chakradev on the 23rd move which was accepted. Phadnis was alsoheld to a draw by Tanvi Thakur of St Anne’s (Kandivli) in 26 moves. Aditya defeated another schoolboy Parth Agrawal of Gokuldham, while Sodani scored over Anand Daswani.

Vishal chose the Sicilian Defence against Wesley’s E2-E4 opening and soon took advantage of Wesley’s weak handling of the opening phase. Vishal on his 14th and 16th turn grabbed two white pawns and after exchanging all major and minor pieces brought the game in King and pawns ending to win in 48 moves.

RESULTS

Group B (top board, 4th round): Prasanna Iyer (3.5) drew with Jeevan Wagh (3.5); Dhiraj Gohil (4) bt Jikku Abraham (3); Sujit Unni (3.5) drew with Amol Chakradev (3.5); Wesley Falcao (3) lost to Vishal Shah (4); K Shelar (3) lost to Manoj Tawade (4); Tanvi Thakur (3) drew with Milind Phadnis (3.5); Parth Agrawal (2.5) lost to Aditya Vora (3.5); Anand Daswani (2.5) lost to Vishal Sodani (3.5); Sachin Bhandari (2) lost to Onkar Upsani (3); Sahaj Goyal (2.5) drew with Amit Golam (2.5); Rohit Shah (2) lost to SM Chavan (3);Shamla Karnik (2.5) drew with Pinkesh Shah (2.5); L Almeida (3) bt A Thipsay (2); K Thipsay (2) lost to Ketki Kulkarni (3).