Report: Vijayaraghavan V
Pics: Mahesh Shetty
Daijiworld Media Network – Mangalore (SP)
 
Mangalore, Jul 25: IM Thejkumar of South Western Railway continues to lead the table with 7.5 pts after winning against C Praveen Kumar of Tamilnadu on the top board, in the eighth round of the tournament.  Thej, playing the white side, faced Modern Benoni of Praveen and gained more space on the centre. Praveen countered well, only to overlook certain combinations involving loss of a knight to stop Thej’s passed pawn. The game ended in 33 moves.
 

In the 2nd board, N Sanjay of Karnataka scored an upset victory over GM Thipsay of Maharastra. The players entered into King’s Indian defence by transposition and Sanjay was enjoying double bishop advantage. In the endgame, Sanjay’s d pawn won a piece and  converted into win in 65 moves. GA Stany of Shimoga was impressive in his victory over IM Laxman of ICF on the 4th board. In a Queen’s Indian defence, Stany played actively to keep Laxman’s king side in a state to worry. Later,  Stany was a pawn up in the Knight against bishop ending. He won the game comfortably in 63moves.  With these victories, Sanjay and Stany have moved into the joint second spot with 7pts each.
 
Viani, the impressive youngster so far, was unable to put across IM R Balasubramaniam of  ICF. Viani, who had a good tournament so far, was anxious to win, but lost the game in 46 moves, after overstepping the time limit in a weak position from a Pirc defence game. Other youngsters S Kaushik of TN beat Sohan Padke of Maharastra on the 17th board and it was G Akash of TN, who surprised  IM Dinesh Sharma of LIC on the ninth board in a short game of 29 moves from the black side of Sicilian Pelikan variation.