JOIN USThejkumar was closely followed by a large group on six points, including Grandmaster Praveen Thipsay, BT Murali Krishnan and Praveen Kumar.
Karnataka’s BS Shivananda chose the Panov Botvinnik attack against State-mate Thejkumar’s Caro-Kann defence. Shivananda’s decision to castle on the opposite side allowed Thejkumar to have a free hand on the queenside. Thejkumar utilised the advantage to wind up the game in 42 moves.
Important results (round VII): Shivananda BS (Kar, 5.5) lt to Thejkumar MS (SWR, 6.5); Praveen Thipsay M (Mah, 6) drew Murali Krishnan BT (Southern Railway, 6); Praveen Kumar C (TN, 6) drew Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury (WB, 5.5); Laxman RR (ICF, 5.5) drew Syed Anwar Shazuli (ICF, 5.5); Rathnakaran K (Southern Railway, 6) bt Phoobalan P (ICF, 5); Ramnathan Balasubramaniam (ICF, 5) lt to Sanjay N (Kar, 6); Tilak Sharad S (Mah, 5.5) drew Arvind Shastry (Kar, 5.5); Stany GA (Kar, 6) bt Saravana Krishnan P (TN, 5); Phadke Sohan (Mah, 5) drew Dinesh K Sharma (LIC, 5); Thanki Hemal Karsanji (Guj, 5.5) bt Meenakshi Subbaraman (IA, 4.5); N Sudhakar Babu (TN, 5.5) bt Sujeesh K (Ker, 4.5); Varugeese Koshy (TN, 5) drew Kaushik S (TN, 5); Antonio Viani D'Cunha (Kar, 5) drew Rahul Shetty (Mah, 5); Anilkumar OT (Ker, 5.5) bt Chakravarthi YVK (AP, 4.5); Nirmal EP (Ker, 5) drew Mithil Ajgaonkar (Mah, 5); Srinivasa Rao M (AP, 5) bt Atul Kumar (J&K, 4); Gahan MG (Kar, 5) bt Savetha CH (TN, 4); Navalgund Niranjan (Kar, 5) bt Ravi Gopal Hegde (Kar, 4); Balasubramanian Rajaram (TN, 4) lt to Vijay Keerthi K (Kar, 5); Roop Saurav (Bih, 4.5) drew Srikanth Ajay (TN, 4.5).
Madhusoodana Bhat S (Kar, 4) lt to Vikram Saralaya (Kar, 5); G Akash (TN, 5) bt Sameer Ghotane (Kar, 4); Kantilal Dave (Raj, 5) bt Shashank D Benadikar (Kar, 4); Santoshkashyap HG (Kar, 4.5) drew Amrutha Mokal (Mah, 4.5); Saket Kumar (Del, 5) bt Joy Chauhan (Guj, 4).