Humpy, Deepan share lead

Visakhapatnam, Apr 11 (UNI) Grand Master Koneru Humpy and GM Elect Deepan Chakkravarthy shared the lead with 9.0 points after 12 rounds in the 43rd National ''A'' Chess championship for men here today.

Both of them settled for relatively quiet draws conserving their energy for the crucial later stages of the tournament. Defending champion and Grandmaster Surya Sekhar Ganguly and rookie Jharkhand player Diwakar Prasad Singh are joint at third with 8.5 points each.

It was a peaceful day at the championships with just three games in the men's section producing a decisive result. Jharkhand player and International Master norm holder Diwakar Prasad continued to impress scoring two crucial wins against Arghyadip Das and B S Shivanandan in the last two rounds.

The victories propelled prasad into the third spot along with Ganguly.

Coming out of his rest day, Ganguly proved handful for Grand Master R B Ramesh, as the Petroff defence of the black crumbled in just 20 moves. Seizing the opportunity of an open castled king, Ganguly exploited a series of passive moves and when Ramesh failed to see an intermezzo capture along with a hidden mate,the curtains were down for Ramesh.

While the win kept Ganguly's title chances alive, the defeat proved costly for the Chennai-based Ramesh, who has now collected 5.5 points.

More UNI XR PDS RAI2038