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Seasoned Rajasthani Vedant Goswami retained his lead with a quick draw against triple IM
Norm holder Vishal Sareen of LIC of India in the fifth round of the closed rating tournament being played here on the premises of 64 squares chess academy.
IM Elect Rahul Shetty of Indian Airlines remained on the heels of Vedant with a workmanlike victory over talented Tania Sachdev of Delhi, who is sponsored by Hughes Software.
Vedant took his tally to whopping 4.5 points after scoring victories in the first four rounds. The tough test for him however begins tomorrow against another in-form man, Shetty. Vishal did not do much with his white pieces against the Queens Indian defence of Vedant and the peace treaty was signed in an equal position after a mere 11 moves.
Vishal, G B Joshi (IA), Nassir Wajih (Railway board) and Tania who all have 2.5 points each in their kitty jointly share the third position.
Top seed and regarded for his solid style of play, IM norm holder C S Gokhale (IA) lost a complicated battle against Nassir to remain on 2 points. Generally a very consistent performer, Chandrashekher appears out of form here. From the black side of a Vienna game Nassir wrested the initiative right from the opening and initiated an attack against the
centralized king. Gokhale could not withstand the pressure and lost rather tamely.
The game between Gurpreet Pal Singh of Railways and G B Joshi was drawn quickly while Chander Pal of Delhi drew with local rating aspirant Updesh Sharma.
Former National Junior Champion Gurpreet started the tournament with three successive losses and is still locating his elusive form. With 1.5 points from five rounds, he now needs to win the remaining games to maintain his ELO rating.
Shetty employed the Bayonet attack to tackle the Kings Indian defence of
Tania and got a slight edge in the early middle game. Tania mixed plans and was saddled with a weak pawn structure that cost her dearly. This was the longest battle in the tournament so far.
Results Round 05
| White |
Pts |
Result |
Black |
Pts |
| Vishal Sareen |
2.5 |
0.5-0.5 |
V Goswami |
4.5 |
| R G Shetty |
4.0 |
1-0 |
T Sachdev |
2.5 |
| N Wajih |
2.5 |
1-0 |
C S Gokhale |
2.5 |
| G P Singh |
1.5 |
0.5-0.5 |
G B Joshi |
2.5 |
| U Sharma |
1.5 |
0.5-0.5 |
Chander Pal |
1.0 |
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