Jha stuns top seed, Neelotpal on sole lead in Asian chess

New Delhi: Local favourite and International Master Sriram Jha brightened up his chances of qualifying for the World Cup after his stunning victory over top seed Ziaur Rahman in the seventh round of the Asian Zone 3.2 Chess Championship. Playing black side of Slav Defence, Jha displayed great tactical skills in the end game to overcome his fancied Bangladeshi rival in 55 moves at the Airport Authority of India Club. Grandmaster Neeloptal Das took the sole lead in the championship with six points by defeating Surbir Lama of Nepal in another seventh round game while overnight joint leader Grandmaster Praveen Thipsay satisfied with half points after 83 moves in French Defence against International Master K Rathnakran.In other seventh round matches, second seed Grandmaster Deepan Chakkravarthy easily overcame Ahmed Ashraf of Maldives while Amir Karim of Pakistan beat Hapuarachchi of Sri Lanka and Grandmaster Reefat Bin-Sattar defeated Tunveer Gillani of Pakistan. In the women`s section, top seed International Master Tania Sachdev inched towards qualifying for the World Cup with a hard fought 80 move draw in Slav Defence against Women Grandmaster Swathi Ghate in the fifth round encounter. Women Grandmasters Nisha Mohota and Kruttika Nadig had easy wins against Sachini Ranasinghe of Sri Lanka and Monalisa Khamboo of Nepal respectively in fifth round. Bureau Report