Singh, Laxman, Gopal emerge joint leaders

Kozhikode, Sep 20 (UNI) Top seed D P Singh of Jharkhand, R R Laxman of Tamil Nadu and G N Gopal of Kerala emerged joint leaders with four points each, after the fourth round of the First International Fide-rated Open Chess Championship here today.

In a spirited game, Singh, who represented the country in the last Chess Olympiad in Italy, beat Vinod Kumar of Kerala, Laxman outsmarted Gireesh D P (Ker) while Gopal defeated statemate Nirmal E P.

Important result: (4th round): D P Singh, 4 (Jhar) bt Vinod Kumar 3 (Ker), Ram S Krishna 3.5 (TN) draws with K Ratnakaran 3.5 (SR), R R Laxman 4 (TN) bet D P Gireesh 3 (Ker), Nirmal E P 3 (Ker) lost to G N Gopal 4 (Ker), M B Muraleedharan 3.5 (Ker) bt Janku Chowgale 3 (Mah), Narayan K 3 (TN) draws with U C Mohananan 3 (Ker), Praveen K 2.5 (AP) lost to K Haridas 3.5 (TN), T Gautam 3.5 (AP) bt K R Mardhusoodanan 2.5 (Ker), P M Pradeep Kumar 3 (Ker) draws with Pathros C T 3 (Ker), O T Anil Kumar 3 (Ker) bt Nooruddin 2 (Ker), Nitin S 3 (TN) bt Athish K 2 (Ker), Sujeesh K 3 (Ker) bt Azhar Ahamed 2 (Ker).

UNI PCH GKT DH PM1848