G B Prakash regains the lead

Grandmaster-norm holder G B Prakash of Indian Bank regained the sole lead with 6.5 points after a thumping victory over Andhra Pradesh's Kalyan Kumar in the seventh round of the Global Trust Bank International Rating Chess tournament in Hyderabad on Monday.

Seven players -- International Master Ravi Hegde (Union Bank), IM Atanu Lahiri, IM Anup Deshmukh (both LIC), N Sanjay (Karnataka), M Y Raju (AP), Jayant Gokhale (Bharat Petroleum) and M R Venkatesh (TN) -- share the second place with six points each in their kitty.

Prakash played a fine game to end Kalyan's party. Playing white, Prakash opened with his usual queen pawn and faced the Semi Slav defense. Kalyan's position looked all right in the middlegame though he faced some problems with his development.

Prakash sacrificed a pawn to exert pressure along the open central files. Kalyan erred decisively when he overlooked a simple manoeuvre by Prakash that cost a full piece. Prakash gave no chances thereafter.

International Master Shankar Roy of Railways was unlucky to go down to M Y Raju in a Sicilian Alapin game with white pieces.

Shankar played the game with his usual speed and got a nearly decisive advantage as Raju wasted a few moves in the opening. A well-timed attack by Shankar netted him a piece but a typical case of 'Chess blindness' occurred soon after as Shankar overlooked a mate in one move.

Atanu Lahiri displayed superior technical play to beat seasoned R S Gupta of Bhilai Steel in a Kings Indian defense game with white pieces.

Gupta made an opening error and his pieces remained confined to the base rank. Skillful play enabled Atanu to gain space advantage and he ripped the Queenside with thematic pawn advances. Gupta fell under time pressure before calling it a day.

Ravi Hegde accounted for D P Singh of Bihar in another Kings Indian of the day. Having black Ravi did not have any troubles in equalising the position in the middlegame.

Singh went for a wrong plan that allowed Hegde to get a passed pawn in the center. Once on top Hegde conducted the technical part in masterly fashion to score easily.

Anup Deshmukh made short work of Malleswar Rao of AP in a Sicilian Nazdorf defense game with black pieces. Malleswar went for the blood early in the opening but was late in realising the grave danger his king was in. Anup just had to open the center to complete the formalities.

Jayant Gokhale defeated Rishipal Singh of AP. In the English Opening where Jayant had the black pieces, Rishipal could not sustain consistency that he had displayed thus far. An ill-timed kingside attack sealed the Hyderabad player's fate on the weak black squares on king side.