Diwakar wins with a round to go

Chennai, Aug 3 (UNI) Diwakar Prasad Singh of Jharkand scored an un assailable 8.5 points in nine rounds to win the 6th Adyar Times New Millennium FIDE Rated Open chess Tournament with a round to spare, here today.

Former Tamil Nadu state and under-25 Champion Ram S Krishnan who scored 7.5 points has to try in the tenth and final round tomorrow for the unreserved second berth in the tournament.

On the top table, Singh without much ado, outsmarted Sagar Shah (Maharashtra) in the ninth round. Where as young R Arun Karthik held Ram S Krishnan to a creditable draw.

Earlier, Diwakar with 7.5 points (7 wins, 1 draw and no loss) in eighth round emerged the sole leader when he accounted for O T Anil Kumar of Kerala.

Ram S Krishnan (7) was a clear second behind the sole leader.

Two youngsters Sagar Shah of Maharaszhtra and R. Arun Karthik of Tamil Nadu with 6.5 points were in the joint third postion.

In a Queen Indian defence , D.P.Singh with light colured pieces played heavily against chess trainer Anilkumar. With a pair of bishop advantage, Singh sailed safely through the middle game.

Results: 1 Singh D.P 8.5 Beat Sagar Shah 6.5 2 Arun Karthi R 7 Drew Ram S.Krishnan 7.5 3 Hariharan V 7 Beat Laxman R.R 6 4 Ravi T.S. 7 Beat Haribalu CV 6 5 Vinoth Kumar 7 Beat Sudhakar Babu N 6 6 Anil Kumar O.T 6 Lost to Nitin S 7 7 Shyam Nikhil P 7 Beat K.Narayanan 6 8 Shanthram K.V 7 Beat Lakshmi Narayanan M.V 6 9 Sa Kannan 6 Lost to Ashwath R 6.5 10 Murugan K 6 Drew Vijaya Sharathy 6 UNI XR VV DH RS2133