Ram S Krishnan leads

Chennai, July 27 (UNI) Ram S Krishnan, a former Tamil Nadu state as well as under-25 champion, took the sole lead with 5.5 points out of a possible six rounds in the first Saranya FIDE Rated Open Chess Tournament here this morning.

Following him, were a cluster of seven players C Praveen Kumar, M Shyam Sundar, Vinoth Kumar, V Hariharan, K Gopalakrishna, P Phoobalan and V A V Rajesh with five points.

Krishnan outplayed FIDE Master K V Shanatharam in 14-moves of a Retti system. Shantharam, who lost his castling right at his 12th move, waited for another two moves to resign as the position became beyond repair.

In a stiff contest between Praveen Kumar and Shyam Sundar, the Queens Gambit Declined took them to a critical, where Shyam had a definite advantage. However, IM norm holder Praveen Kumar waited for a break through and he got it on the 38th move and yielded a draw.

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