Mhamal takes chess lead

Mangalore, May 1 (IANS) Second seeded Anurag Mhamal, sponsored by Dempo, kept his lead with a quick draw with Akash Thakur in the seventh round of the first UKCA Cup All India Open FIDE Rated chess tournament here Tuesday. Anurag leads with 6.5 points with just two rounds to go.

Sharing the second spot at 6.0 points were top seed Akash Thakur (Railways), WIM Bhagyashree Thipsay (Mah) and Pranav Vijay (TN).

Further half a behind at 5.5 points were V Raghavendra, Santosh Kashyap, Vaibhav Bhat, (all Karnataka), Naik Rishubh Naresh, Niraj Saripalli (both Goa), A Akshaya and M Kunal (both TN).

In a short game, top seed Akash Thakur drew with his protege Anurag Mhamal in the top board. In the second board, Bhagyashree, who had a chance to move into the leaderboard, managed only a draw in the second board with Karnataka's Santosh Kashyap.

Singapore's Arjuan Vairavan (ELO 1760), playing with black pieces drew with Aditya K Pai of Karnataka.

Important results (Round 7): Anurag Mhamal (Goa) 6.5 drew with Akash Thakur (Rlys) 6, Bagyashree Thipsay (Mah) 6 drew with Santosh Kashyap HG (Kar) 6, Nandhini Saripalli (Goa) 5 lost to Pranav Vijay (TN) 6, Naik Rishubh Naresh (Goa) 5.5 drew with A Akshaya (TN) 5.5, Niraj Saripalli (Goa) 5.5 drew with Rajkumar S Singha (Kar) 5.5, V Raghavendra (Kar) 5.5 bt L Vivekananda (Kar) 5, R Parthasarathy (Kar) 4.5 lost to M Kunal (TN) 5.5, Varma Shabdhik (Kar) 4.5 lost to Vaibhav Bhat (Kar) 5.5, Kapil Pawse (Goa) 5 drew with Rohan Ahuja (Goa) 5, G Aarthi (TN) 5 drew with Anirudh V Bhat (Goa) 5.

Round 6: A Akshaya (TN) 5 lost to Anurag Mhamal (Goa) 6, Akash Thakur (Rlys) bt Varma Shabdhik (Kar) 4.5, Rohan Ahuja (Goa) 4.5 lost Bagyashree Thipsay (5.5), Pranav Vijay (TN) 5 bt V Raghavendra (Kar) 4.5, Santosh Kashyap HG (Kar) 5 bt C H Meghna (Ker) 4, Vaibhav Bhat (Kar) 4.5 drew with R Parthasarathy (Kar) 4.5, Pangal Gopalkrishna Nayak (Kar) 4 lost to Niraj Saripalli (Goa) 5, Rajkumar S Singha (Kar) 5 bt S Vasista (Kar) 4, Akshay V Halagannavar (Kar) 4 lost to Naik Rishubh Naresh (Goa) 5, L Vivekananda (Kar) 5 bt Anant Prabhudesai (Goa) 4.