Pallavi Shah (left) and Ketan Khaire pouring their minds over on the top board game in the Maharashtra State Selection chess tournament. July 16: Five players shared the lead jointly with six points each at the end of the seventh round of the Maharashtra State Selection Chess Tournament organised by the Bombay Chess Association at the Andheri Stadium Complex, here today.Leading the bunch were overnight leaders Ketan Khaire (Pune) and Pallavi Shah (Kolhapur), who agreed to a draw in 51 moves in their seventh round clash, along with Shashikant Kutwal (Supe-Baramati), Ramkrishna Kashelkar (Mumbai), and P G Date (Mumbai).One rung behind the front runners with 5.5 points apiece were Umesh Panbude (Nagpur), Vinod Solanki and Salil Surendran (both Mumbai). Following them with 5 points each were top seed S S Soman, Pankaj Joshi (both Nagpur), Deepak Andurkar, Rashmin Pulekar, Prasad Ghate, Ketan Boricha (all Mumbai), H Mandhare (Satara), P Mokal and Utpal Sasane (Pune).On the top board, Khaire defended his black pieces by employing the French defence against Pallavi's e-4 opening. Pallavi tried to complicate the game by sacrificing her bishop for two pawns in h7 square. But Khaire defended well by exchanging heavy pieces in time and the game ended in a draw.ANUPAMA TRIUMPHS Sangeeta Chandorkar's late surge could not stop a forceful Anupama Kedar from clinching the Kamal Satchidanand Jeet Trophy for the women's singles winner in the Kshatriya Union Club-organised 35th Open Carrom Tournament at Vanmali Hall, Dadar today. Anupama defeated Sangeeta 25-8, 25-21.In the sub-juniors singles final of the BoI, Philips, UBI and SBI-sponsored event, Suraj Kajolkar overcame tough opposition from Rupesh Pailkar (25-22, 25-15) before lifting the Laxmibai Janardhan Devare Trophy.
