Asian Zone Chess: Rathnakara joins Jha, Deepan in lead

New Delhi: International Master K. Rathnakaran put himself in contention for the title and a berth for the World Cup with a win over Bangladeshi Grandmaster Reefat Bin-Sattar in the penultimate round of the ongoing Asian Zone 3.2 Chess Championship here Sunday.Rathnakaran displayed an attacking game with white pieces in King`s Indian attack and outwitted the higher seeded Bangladeshi rival in 32 moves. This helped Rathnakaran to catch up with overnight sole leader Sriram Jha, who had a bye. With just one round left in the championship, Jha and Rathnakaran along with second seed Deepan Chakkravarthy, who settled for half a point against Neelotpal Das in the twelfth round, are at nine points. In the final round, Jha takes on Ahmed Ashraf of Maldives, who has only one point while Rathnakaran is paired with Tunnveer Gillani of Pakistan. If both Rathnakaran and Jha win, they will go into a tie on points. The tie will be resolved by play-off match of two rapid games. In another twelfth-round matches, Grandmaster Praveen Thipsay defeated top seed Ziaur Rahman of Bangladesh while Hapuarachchi HLM of Sri Lanka beat Kesav Malla of Bhutan. Amir Karim and Gillani Tunveer of Pakistan defeated Ahmed Ashraf of Maldives and Surbir Lama of Nepal respectively. Results: (Indians otherwise stated) Men (Round-12): Ahmed Ashraf of Maldives (1) lost to Amir Karim of Pakistan (3.5); Surbir Lama of Nepal (3.5) lost to Gillani Tunveer of Pakistan (5); IM K Rathnakaran (9) beat Reefat Bin-Sattar of Bangladesh (5.5); Kesav Malla of Bhutan (0) lost to Hapuarachchi HLM of Sri Lanka (3); GM Praveen Thipsay (8.5) beat GM Ziaur Rahman of Bangladesh (7.5); GM Neelotpal Das (7.5) drew with GM Deepan Chakkravarthy (9); IM Sriram Jha (9) got bye. Bureau Report