Sivanandan maintains lead

Vijayawada :

B S Sivanandan hung on to his half a point lead following an easy draw against woman Grandmaster-in-waiting Dronavalli Harika in the 7th round of the 42nd National 'B' chess championship. The draw took Sivanandan's tally to 6.5 points out of a possible seven. International Master Sriram Jha of LIC, IM M R Venkatesh of Petroleum Sports Promotion Board and IM S Poobesh Anand of Tamil Nadu are closing up to the Karnataka player. Also catching up is Andhra Pradesh's M Srinivasa Rao and Harika who both have 6 points to their credit. A pack of 17 players including top seed Grandmaster R B Ramesh is next in the standing list with 5.5 points. Harika playing with white drew with Sivanandan on the top board. Though Sivanandan added some zing to the game with his unorthodox style of play, it failed to force a result as both the players agreed to sign the peace treaty soon after. Ramesh was yet again held to a draw by Vikramaditya Kamble, winner of the gold medal in the last national team chess championship. (PTI)