WITH a clear half point lead over his nearest rivals, Vijay Jhanwar emerged champion in the 10th Kamal Kumar Barat Memorial NDCA Veterans (45 Year & Above) Chess Championship that concluded at Dhanwate National College, Congress Nagar on Sunday. Playing with black pieces on the top board in the seventh and final round, Jhanwar got the better of Umesh Lalwani to end with six points. Half a point adrift were the duo of YM Shamkuwar and BC Borkar who scored 5.5 points and were placed second and third respectively. As many as five players — Govind Bhake, Umesh Lalwani, Sham Agrawal, Anzar Ahmad Khan and Dinesh Ambade ended the tourney with five points in the kitty. They were ranked from fourth to eighth in that order after the tie-breaker rule was applied.

 

Archana Kotwal, with four points from seven rounds, ended as the best woman player in the tourney. Prizes were distributed at the hands of Dilip Kamdar, President, Nagpur District Chess Association (NDCA), who was chief guest for the closing ceremony. Other guests present were Kaustav Barat, sponsor and grandson of late Kamal Kumar Barat; KK Barat, Secretary NDCA; SN Parkhi, Treasurer, NDCA, and Chief Arbiter IA Pravin Pantawane. Pantawane was assisted by Deepak Patrikar and Shrikant Bagde.

 

Results (Round 7): Umesh Lalwani (5) lost to Vijay Jhanwar (6), Anzar Ahmad Khan (5) drew with Govind Bhake (5), Shamkuwar YM (5.5) bt Bhange Sanjay (4.5), Borkar BC (5.5) bt Vinay Barhanpure (4), Kotwal Archana (4) lost to Sham Agrawal (4), Mahajan Sadanand (4) lost to Ambade Dinesh (5), TM Kawadkar (4.5) bt Sudesh Nitnaore (3.5), Virag Wasnik (4.5) Dhamgaye Pramod (3.5), Thool Sushil (3) lost to Watane Satish (4.5), Agasti Harihar (3.5) drew with Khan HK (3.5).