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NT Bureau
Chennai, May 30:

        IM elect S P Sethuraman of Chennai jumped into sole lead with 8.5 points at the end of the 10th and penultimate round of a chess tourney at KIT being organized by Mount Chess Academy and Indian Chess School.

        Five Players - R Arun Karthik (Chennai), Ram S Krishnan (BSNL), S Nitin (Salem), Merriston David Scanny (Tirunelveli) and Shyam Nikhil (Madurai) are closely following the leaders with 8 points each.

        On the top board, Arun Karthik employed Ruy Lopez defence against fancied S P Sethuraman and exchanged all the major pieces. Sethuraman gained a pawn in the ending but could not convert the material advantage to a win and drew the game after 80 moves.

        On the second board, Shyam Nikhil checkmated P Saravanakrishnan of Kanchi in a miniature game in French defence in 25 moves. The major upset of the penultimate round was the victory of Merriston David Scanny of Tirunelveli over IM Shyam Sundar.

        International Master R R Laxman, withdrew from the tournament after nine rounds.

        The final round will be played later today and State Revenue Minister I Periasamy will distribute the prizes and D V Sundar, secretary, All India Chess Federation will preside over the function.