Mhamal, Akshaya share chess lead

Mangalore, April 30 (IANS) Second seed Anurag Mhamal of Goa and Chennai girl A Akshaya shared the lead with 5.0 points after the fifth round of the 1st UKCA Cup All India Open FIDE Rated chess tournament here Monday.

Sharing the second spot at 4.5 points were top seed Akash Thakur (Railways), Bagyashree Thipsay (Mah), Rohan Ahuja (Goa), Varma Shabdhik and V Raghavendra (both Karnataka).

Further half a point behind at 4.0 were Santosh Kashyap, Vaibhav Bhat, Pangal Gopalkrishna Nayak, R Parthasarathy, L Vivekananda (all Karnataka), Deepak Gopalan, Naik Rishubh Naresh, Anant Prabhudesai, Nandhini Saripalli (all Goa), Pranav Vijay (TN) and CH Meghna (AP).

Top seed Thakur shed half a point and the lead changed hands to younger generation. Dempo-sponsored Anurag Mhamal, the rising star of Goan chess, scored successive victories over Ritviz Parab and Vaibhav Bhat, and moved into joint lead with Akshaya.

Equally impressive was another Goan junior Rohan Ahuja who tore apart the defences of higher rated Tamil Nadu player M Kunal in a daring display of attacking chess.

Singapore star Arjuan Vairavan (ELO 1760), playing with black pieces, overcame a stiff resistance from Mangalore-based Sharan Katti and moved on to 3.5 points. The double rook and knight ending was handled better by the Singapore boy who nurtured his extra pawn advantage to victory.

Important Results (Round 5): Anurag Mhamal (Goa) 5 bt Vaibhav Bhat (Kar) 4, A Akshaya (TN) 5 bt Pranav Vijay (TN) 4, Niraj Saripallli (Goa) 4 lost to Akash Thakur (Rlys) 4.5, Rohan Ahuja (Goa) 4.5 bt M Kunal (TN) 3.5, Bagyashree Thipsay (Mah) 4.5 bt Anirudh V Bhat (Kar) 3.5, V Raghavendra (4.5) bt Krishna V Shinde (Kar) 3.5, Nandhini Saripalli (Goa) 4 drew Santhosh Kashyap HG (Kar) 4, Varma Shabdhik (Kar) 4.5 bt Ritviz Parab (Goa) 3, Aditya Pai K (Kar) 3.5 drew Akhilesh T Rai (Goa) 3.5, Raghav Bagri (Raj) 3 lost to Rajkumar Singha (Kar) 4.

Round 4: Akash Thakur (Rlys) 3.5 drew Rohan Ahuja (Goa) 3.5, Ritviz Parab (Goa) 3 lost to Anurag Mhamal (Goa) 4, Pranav Vijay (TN) 4 bt Naik Rishubh Naresh (Goa) 3, Anirudh V Bhat (Goa) 3.5 drew V Raghavendra (Kar) 3.5, L Vivekananda (Kar) 3 lost to A Akshaya (TN) 4, Vaibhav Bhat (Kar) 4 bt K Durgesh (Kar) 3, Vivekraj (Kar) 3 lost to Niraj Saripalli (Goa) 4, M Kunal (TN) 3.5 bt Kapil Pawse (Goa) 2.5, S K Tasneem (AP) 2.5 lost to Bagyashree Thipsay (Mah) 3.5, Santosh Kashyap HG (Kar) 3.5 bt Siddharth Murali (Kar) 2.5.