Defending champion Sanjoy still leading

IMPHAL, June 6: Top seed and defending champion Sanjoy, who represented India in the Under 10 years International Chess Championship at Greece in 2004, is among the lead with 4 points by defeating Gobin Luwang, who represented India in the Under 10 years International Chess Championship at Spain in 2001, in a very tough game in the fourth round match played today in the ongoing 22nd Kh.Anou Singh Memorial State Level Open Chess Tournament 2012.

Sanjoy playing his favorite Sicilian Defence put a lot of pressure on his opponent who made a mistake in the 33 rd move (33. Rg3) and later took the advantage to wind up the game in 53 moves.

With this win the defending champion is hopeful to retain the title but tough matches are expected in the next remaining three rounds.

At another table, former champion Premjit defeated Somorendro to earn full point and is hoping to regain the title which he won in 2004. In another table, the young promising player Herojit played a draw game against the experienced rated player Bhogen. At one stage Herojit was in a winning position but he failed to grasp the advantage.

At the end of this round, Sanjoy, Jacky and S.Premjit are jointly taking the lead with 4 points each. With three rounds still left to decide the prize winners, all the players in the top tables have to play cautiously to get a top cash prize.

The fifth round matches will be played tomorrow at 6.30 in the morning.