Chennai Teams Move Into Top Gear
By Arvind Aaron

The two Chennai teams, Chennai-A and Chennai-B made considerable ground to wrest the lead and second places at the end of the seventh and penultimate round in the 10th National Cities Championship being organised by the T.Nagar Chess Academy in the Hall of Chess in Chennai.

Chennai-A humbled defending champs Kanchipuram-A by 3.5-0.5 to move into sole lead and a position of comfort with 20 points. Chennai-B drew Hyderabad 2-2 but had benefited from a big 4-0 sweep in the morning over Mangalore-A to reach the second place with 19.5 points. Kozhikode which overcame overnight leaders Kanchipuram-A 2.5-1.5 in the morning beat Ahmedabad in the evening to move to third place with 19 points. These three teams have title chances.

The Chennai-A scorers were R.R.Laxman, Vinoth Kumar and Ram S.Krishnan. The out of form R.Balasubramaniam was fielded and he made a draw against Mari Arul. Laxman outfoxed Shazuli in an ending on the top board. Natarajan and T.J.suresh Kumar were the other losers. Kanchipuram have in all probability lost the title chance with this poor day.

In the morning, Kozhikode's Ratnakaran and O.T.Anil Kumar pulled off sensational wins in the top two boards to help Kozhikode defeat Kanchipuram-A 2.5-1.5.

Important results:

Round 7: Kanchipuram-A (18) lost to Chennai-A (20) 0.5-3.5, Chennai-B (19.5) drew Hyderabad (18) 2-2, Ahmedabad (15.5) lost to Kozhikode (19) 1-3, Bangalore-B (17.5) bt Chennai-L (15) 3-1, Mangalore-A (15) bt Mangalore-B (15) 2.5-1.5, Trivallur (15.5) drew Chennai-C (14) 2-2.

Round 6: Kozhikode bt Kanchipuram-A 2.5-1.5, Hyderabad lost to Chennai-A 1.5-2.5, Mangalore-A lost to Chennai-B 0-4, Chennai-L bt Trivallur 2.5-1.5.

Reports : -      Day One       Day Two      Day Three    Final Day

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Published on : 15th Feb, 2007