Panjim: Railways ‘A''s title campaign hit a road block after a 2-2 draw against Tamil Nadu ‘B' which allowed Petroleum to edge past them in the title race at the National team chess championship. Railways ‘A’ despite being unbeaten in the tournament lost out the advantage to Petroleum who defeated the other Railways, Railways ‘B’ 3.5-0.5 in a one-sided affair.
The defending champion Petroleum is looking good by a virtue of a superior aggregate of game-points over their arch-rival Railways. Airports Authority of India with a 1.5-point advantage on game-points is looking good to defeat Air India and win the title in the women’s section.
Results:Open (eighth round): Karnataka Hoysalas (10) lost to Air India (12) 1.5-2.5; Maharashtra ‘B' (12) bt AAI (10) 3.5-0.5; Bloom Chess Academy (10) lost to Team AICF (11) 1.5-2.5; Tamil Nadu ‘A' (11) bt Kerala (9) 3-1; Haryana (9) lost to Indian Bank (10) 1-3; LIC (10) bt Innovators Chess Academy (Kar) (8) 2.5-1.5; Madhya Pradesh ‘A' (8) lost to Maharashtra ‘A' (10) 2.5-1.5; Goa ‘A' (9) drew with West Bengal (9) 2-2.
Tamil Nadu ‘B' (11) drew with Railways ‘A' (14) 2-2 (C. Praveen Kumar bt Vikramaditya Kulkarni, M. Kunal lost to Arghyadip Das; Syed Anwar Shazuli lost to R.R. Laxman; P. Phoobalan bt M.S. Thejkumar); Railways ‘B' (11) lost to Petroleum (14) 0.5-3.5 (Akshat Khamparia drew with K. Sasikiran; Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury lost to S. Arun Prasad; Saptarshi Roy lost to B. Adhiban; K. Ratnakaran lost to Deep Sengupta).
Women (sixth round): AAI (10) bt Tamil Nadu (7) 3.5-0.5; Air India (10) bt Goa ‘B' (6) 4-0; Petroleum (8) drew with Chess Gurukul (TN) (7) 2-2; Bambolim Chess Club (Goa) (4) lost to LIC (7) 0-4; Bihar (6) bt J&K (0) 4-0; Gujarat (2) lost to Goa ‘A' (3) 0-4.
