Laxman Moves Into Sole Lead

By Arvind Aaron

Most Swiss format events do not see the top seed winning these days. At Chennai in the St Joseph's National Under-25 Championship, it may well be the case but for a change, top seed International Master Rajaram Laxman of Chennai is leading with 4/4. Five rounds are still to be played in this event organised by the Mount Chess Academy.

Laxman scored over Praveen Kumar in a well controlled game with the white pieces. Praveen had the black side in a Catalan Opening and also chose to play ...g6. Laxman quickly took control of the centre and used the d5 square to dominate the encounter. When he was about to win queen side pawns in a queen and minor pieces ending, Praveen resigned on move 40.

The other overnight leaders drew in fighting encounters. Karthikeyan sacrificed a piece which Deep Sengupta returned. In a complicated position after 27 moves, both players had less than a minute and did not wish to continue as high risk would mean a lottery. Instead they walked home with a half point each. Karthikeyan and Deep are both IMs and the former is a former Asian Junior champion and the latter a former world under-12 champion.