JOIN USPlaying with black pieces, Abhilash scored a battling win over Karnataka’s Vijendra YG in 74 moves to establish his reign at the top on the third day of the meet.
Andhra Pradesh players Ramakrishna Perumalla, M Deepthamsh Reddy and V Lakshmi Sandeep Naidu, Maharashtra’s Gopal Ashok Rathod, Linda Rangarajan of Puducherry and Akash Iyer of Tamil Nadu share the second spot with 4.5 points each.
Important results (round five): Ramakrishna Perumalla (AP, 4.5) drew Linda Rangarajan (Pud, 4.5); M Deepthamsh Reddy (AP, 4.5) drew Akash Iyer (TN, 4.5); Vijendra YG (Kar, 4) lt to ML Abhilash Reddy (AP, 5); Lakshmi Sandeep Naidu V (AP, 4.5) bt Rupankar Nath (WB, 3.5); Balasubramanian Rajaram (TN, 3.5) lt to Gopal Ashok Rathod (Mah, 4.5); Sameer Kathmale (Mah, 4) bt BR Aravinda (Kar, 3); LV Shivkumar (AP, 3.5) drew M Mukesh (TN, 3.5); VPS Darshan (Kar, 3) lt to Vishal Rao (Kar, 4); Joy Chauhan (Guj, 3.5) drew L Vivekananda (Kar, 3.5); T Chandran (Mah, 3) lt to Harihara Sudan M (TN, 4).