Short, Venkatesh keep lead intact

Mumbai, Nov 26 (UNI) The race for the title of the Commonwealth Chess Championship 2006 has taken a fast lane with the both the overnight leaders, defending champion Nigel Short of England and IM M R Venkatesh of India winning their respective encounters and keeping their lead intact.

On the top board, Nigel Short, playing white, opted for the closed variation of the Sicilian defense. The development was on an equal footing with chances for both the sides. But thanks to the opponent, Nigel got the opportunity as Deepan Chakravarthy blundered his knight. Deepan resigned on the 43rd move.

On the 2nd board, the game between GM Neelotpal Das and IM M R Venkatesh was a Sicilian Svenishkov variation. The higher rated GM Neelotpal Das sacrificed his rook for a knight. However, the compensation was not sufficient. The two rooks of Black created multiple threats and Neelotpal resigned on move 55 when faced with heavy material loss.

GM Sandipan Chanda edged out the more experienced veteran GM Dibyendu Barua in a French Defense opening in a hard fought 60 moves to remain in close heels of the leader. He is occupying the sole 2nd spot.

Three players -- GM Abhijit Kunte, IM Himanshu Sharma and WGM S Vijayalakshmi are jointly in the 3 rd position. IM Himanshu prevailed over IM Abhijeet Gupta who suffered his 2nd consecutive defeat and WGM Vijayalakshimi, who is also holding the title of men's IM, beat her compatriot WGM Swati Ghate to remain in the hunt for top positions.

Following are the results of Round 7: GM Short Nigel (Eng) beat GM Deepan Chakravarthy (Ind); GM Neelotpal Das (Ind) lost to IM Venkatesh M R (Ind); GM Sandipan Chanda (Ind) beat GM Barua Dibyendu (Ind); GM Kunte Abhijit (Ind) beat IM Arun Prasad (Ind); IM Sriram Jha (Ind) drew with GM Ramesh R B (Ind); IM Himanshu Sharma (Ind) beat IM Gupta Abhijeet (Ind); Das Arghyadip (Ind) drew with IM Sundararajan Kidambi (Ind); IM Vijayalakshmi Subbaraman (Ind) beat WGM Swathi Ghate (Ind); Sethuraman S P (Ind) drew with IM Roy Chowdhury Saptarshi (Ind); IM Babu N Sudhakar (Ind) drew with IM Prakash G B (Ind); GM Rahman Ziaur (Bangladesh) drew with IM Gokhale Chandrashekhar (Ind), GM Ganguly Surya Shekhar (Ind) beat IM Prathamesh Sunil Mokal (Ind); GM Thipsay Praveen (Ind) beat Palit Somak (Ind); GM Wu Shaobin (Sin) beat Shyam Nikil (Ind); WGM Harika Dronavalli (Ind) drew with GM Murshed Niaz (Bangladesh), WGM Meenakshi (Ind) drew with GM Bakre Tejas (Ind); Akshayraj Kore (Ind) drew with WGM Ramaswamy Aarthie (Ind); Rathnakaran K (Ind) beat Swapnil S Dhopade (Ind); IM Satyapragyan Swayangsu (Ind) beat Van Den Heever Donovan (RSA); WGM Karavade Eesha (Ind) drew with Gopal G N (Ind).

UNI GS MAZ SAM RAI2242