No clear leader in chess Tournament

Chennai, Aug 1 (UNI) Open chess tournament, 2006 the Sixth Adyar Times New Millennium FIDE-rated Open Chess Tournament is now halfway through but no clear leader has emerged so far even at the close of the fifth round here today.

The current Indian chess Olympian Diwakar Prasad Singh with 4.5 in 5 rounds has to inch forward in the remaining five rounds to get the title. But there are as many as seven players with the same 4.5, racing along with him.

Surprisingly, only one of the four International Masters in fray R R Laxman is in the reckoning. The other three N Sudhakar Babu (Indian Bank) (4), K Murugan (NLC) (4) and T S Ravi (IOC) (3) were way behind.

The joint leaders besides D P Singh included three experienced players, International Master R R Laxman, FIDE Master K V Shantharam, former Tamil Nadu State Senior and Under-25 Champion Ram S Krishnan Asian Under-14 champion S Nitin (Salem), Shyam Nikhil (Madurai), K Narayanan ( Karaikudi) and National Under-16 Champion R Ashwath (DBO''A'').

Ram S Krishnan with white pieces forced the top international of the tournament D P Singh to a creditable draw in a Catalan opening which saw an equal Rook and same colour Bishop and pawns ending at the end finish of the 35th move.

In similar fashion, young S Nitin was rewarded with a fine draw in the ''g3'' line of the Kings Indian defence. Here also the ending pattern was a bishop and pawns. Though Nitin had an extra pawn, veteran Shantharam gave no hope for a win to the youngster. The peace treaty was signed in their 43rd move.

Both youngsters R Ashwath and K Narayanan increased their tally by winning over R K Shivamurugan and IM T S Ravi in creditable fashion.

RESULTS ROUND FIVE 1 Ram S.Krishnan 4.5 Drew Singh D.P 4.5 2 Shantharam K.V 4.5 Drew Nitin S 4.5 3 Das Debashis 3.5 Lost to Laxman R.R 4.5 4 Arun Karthik R 4 Drew Sudhakar Babu N 4 5 Kannan Sa 3.5 Lost to Shyam Nikhil 4.5 6 Shiva Murugan R.K 3.5 Lost to Ashwath R 4.5 7 Ravi T.S 3 Lost to Narayanan K 4.5 8 Stanley Samson P 3 Lost to Murugan K 4 9 Anil Kumar O.T. 4 Beat Natarajan M 3 10 Vinoth Kumar 4 Beat Shravan Kumar Talwar 3 UNI XR VV GS SPA RN2223