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Draws Dominate As Qualifying Spirit Replaces Fighting Spirit
By Arvind Aaron
Press Officer - AICF
The battle for the top 30 qualifying seats in the National A is on top priority for the players participating in the 44th National B at Ahmedabad. On Sep 8, Lanka Ravi of ONGC, Hyderabad kept his lead after a day dominated by drawn encounters. Ravi is on 9/11 and he drew with R.R.Laxman of Chennai. Players in the top nine tables settled for quick draws. Fighting spirit was replaced by the spirit of qualifying. And IM Himanshu Sharma retained his second place at 8.5/11 with a draw against top seed K.Ratnakaran of Southern Railways, Kozhikode.
Scores of players are on eight points with drawn results. Winners who came to 8 points include B.T.Muralikrishnan (Southern Railway) and P.D.S.Girinath (South Central Railway). The two losers were P.Shyam Nikhil and K.V.Shantharam. Besides the established names, also on eight points are Sudhir K.Sinha, Somak Palit (Ben) and Ashwin Jayaram (TN).
The winner will receive Rs.30,000 and the trophy from the Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. Former National A champion S.Nasir Ali of Kanpur is one of the oldest participants and Hetul Shah is the youngest at six years. The prize fund is Rs.137,000. Two more rounds remain to be played. The organisers plan to publish games played in the National B at the official website of the event at www.ingsca.org With nine points expected to be the qualifying mark, Lanka Ravi can breathe easy and play for the title.
Published on : 08.09.2006
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