Kanchipuram Wrests Lead From Kozhikode
By Arvind Aaron

Kanchipuram, the temple and silk saree town of Tamil Nadu is leading the 10th National Cities Championship at the Hall of Chess on February 13. They have established a decent 1.5-point lead after five rounds in the 27-team event being played at Chennai.

Fifth seed Kanchipuram-A are leading with 16 points. Behind them on 14.5 are third seed Hyderabad and Chennai-A, the top seed are on 14 points. In the other teams of interest are second seed Chennai-B and fourth seed Kozhikode with 13.5 apiece. It is a clear five way race for the title.

Syed Anwar Shazuli of Kanchipuram-A did not benefit by refusing the draw with white to Vikramjit Singh of Hyderabad. He lost on the top board. C.Natarajan compensated that loss with a win on the third board for Kanchipuram-A over J.Ramakrishna. Mari Arul split points early with Rishipal Singh. A.Sankar of Kanchipuram-A was in trouble against Vinay Kumar but a rook blunder from the latter forced him to take a perpetual and the match ended in a nicely fought 2-2 tie. Hyderabad was perhaps little unlucky.

In the second match of the day, Chennai-B overcame Kozhikode by 2.5-1.5 after Hariharan fought a difficult game and swung the fortunes. Earlier, Sudhakar Babu had won and Sai Meera had lost after Prakash drew K.Ratnakaran on the top board.

In the fourth round on Tuesday morning, Kanchipuram-A swept Mangalore-B 4-0 to make use of the pairing luck and its own experience to jump into sole lead. Hyderabad had defeated Kozhikode and Chennai-A had beaten its Chennai-B team 2.5-1.5.

An interesting three rounds remain in this contest. The best two teams will pack their backs to Tehran for the Asian Cities from March 1-9.

Round 5: Kanchipuram-A (16) drew Hyderabad (14.5) 2-2, Chennai-B (13.5) bt Kozhikode (13.5) 2.5-1.5, Chennai-A (14) bt Ahmedabad (11) 3.5-0.5, Bangalore-B (11) lost to Mangalore-A (12.5) 1.5-2.5, Kanchipuram-B (10.5) lost to Chennai-L (11.5) 1.5-2.5, Chennai-C (10) lost to Mangalore-B (11) 1.5-2.5, Kanchipuram-C (9.5) lost to Chennai-E (11) 1.5-2.5.

Round 4: Kozhikode lost to Hyderabad 1.5-2.5, Mangalore-B lost to Kanchipuram-A 0-4, Chennai-B lost to Chennai-A 1.5-2.5, Ahmedabad bt Kaanchipuram-B 2.5-1.5.

Reports : -   Day One     Day Two     Day Three    Day Four   Final Day

home

Published on : 15th Feb, 2007