Visweswaran leads

Mumbai, May 14: K Visweswaran became the sole leader after the eighth round of the International Rating Open Chess Tournament when he defeated Roktim Bandopadhyaya, his co-leader yesterday, at the Andheri Sports Complex.

Top seeded GB Prakash of Indian Bank strongly came back into the reckoning when the crushed IM elect, Rahul Shetty of Indian Airlines in only 26 moves from the black side of French Defence to take his tally to 6.5 points and move into the second spot. Vishweshwaran, a 23-year old engineer from Chennai, faced Bandopadhyay8217;s English opening perfectly and gained some space. Bandopadhyay sacrificed a pawn but it only allowed Viswesaran8217;s rook and bishop to become more active and he promptly won a pawn on the 31st move. Bandopadhyay8217;s fell into further trouble when he had to make nine moves in less than a minute. Vishweshwaran played well and won the game after 42 moves.

RESULTS: 8th round: Roktim Bandopadhyaya 6 lost to K Vishweswaran 7; Rahul Shetty 5.5 lost to GB Prakash 6.5, AtanuLahiri 6 drew with Sriram Jha 6; Pankaj Joshi 6 drew with TS Ravi 6, Sharad Tilak 6 drew with Sandipan Chanda 6, Avinash Awate 6 drew with Enamul Hussain 6.