Birthday boy Thipsay and Neelotpal on joint lead

New Delhi: Grandmaster Praveen Thipsay, who celebrated his fiftieth birthday today, made it more memorable one as he defeated Surbir Lama of Nepal in the sixth round of the Asain Zone 3.2 Chess Championship to lead the table along with Neelotpal Das.Playing black side of four knights game,Thipsay overcame his Nepali rival in 58 moves while Neelotpal defeated Ahmed Ashraf without much struggle in just 27 moves. They are leading with five points apiece out of a possible six. On other tables, overnight joint leader and local hope International Master Sriram Jha and second seed GM Deepan Chakkravarthy split the point after 20 moves while top seed Ziaur Rahman of Bangladesh defeated Amir Karim of Pakistan. Another Indian IM in the fray, K Rathnakaran had it easy against Kesav Malla of Bhutan. After a fine run in the championship, Tunveer Gillani of Pakistan succumbed to his second straight defeat as he lost his sixth round match against Hapuarachchi HLM of Sri Lanka. Earlier in the fifth round, Gillani was beaten by Ziaur Rahman. In the women`s section, top seed IM Tania Sachdev took the sole with 3.5 points after settling for half points against Women Grand Master Nisha Mohota in their fifth round match. Tania had the scares of defeat but managed to secure half point after 40 moves as Nisha made some crucial mistakes towards the end. In fourth round matches, Kruttika Nadig beat Sachini Ranasinghe of Sri Lanka while Sultana Sharmin Shirin of Bangladesh made major upset by beating Women Grandmaster Swathi Ghate in 46 moves. Results (Indians otherwise stated): Men (Round-6): Gillani Tunveer of Pakistan (2.5) lost to Hapuarachchi HLM of Sri Lanka (1) ; Amir Karim of Pakistan (1) lost to GM Rahman Ziaur of Bangladesh (4.5); IM Sriram Jha (4.5) drew with GM Deepan Chakkravarthy (4); Ahmed Ashraf of Maldvies (1) lost to GM Neelotpal Das (5); Surbir Lama of Nepal (2.5) lost to GM Praveen Thipsay (5); IM K Rathnakaran (4) beat Kesav Malla of Bhutan (0). GM Reefat Bin Sattar of Bangladesh(1) got bye. Men (Round-5): Malla Kesav lost to Surbir Lama; Praveen Thipsay beat Ahmed Ashraf; Neelotpal Das drew with Sriram Jha ; Deepan Chakkravarthy beat Amir Karim ; Ziaur Rahman beat Tunveer Gillani; Hapuarachchi HLM lost to Reefat Bin-Sattar; K Rathnakaran got bye. Women (Round-4):- WGM Kruttika Nadig (2.5) beat Sachini Ranasinghe of Sri Lanka (1); WGM Nisha Mohota (2) drew with IM Tania Sachdev (3.5); WGM Swathi Ghate (.5) lost to Sultana Sharmin Shirin of Bangladesh (2.5); Monalisa Khamboo of Nepal (0) got bye. Bureau Report