MUMBAI, Aug 13: Indian boys seems to be continuing with the good work initiated by Ketki Kulkarni in the British Open Chess Tournament in progress at at Hove, England. Kumardeep Chakravarty leads the field in the under-12 section by winning all his four round matches, according to information reaching the Maharashtra Chess Association here.

Mumbai youngster, Varun Datta, all of eight years, was in the second position half a point behind the leaders (2.5) after drawing his third round match against Chetan Deva while playing with black pieces. Tom Eckersley and Stephen Gordon are the leaders in the under-10 category by winning all their three round matches.

He had earlier defeated Kathryn Barnes and Charles Heppel in the first and second rounds. Varun, the under-8 Maharastra State champion, had finished in the joint third in the under-8 and was joint second in the under-9 section.The 7-year-old Ketki Kulkarni, a third standard student of Patkar Vidyala, Dombivili had won the under-8 and the under-9 championships.

Another Mumbai lad, Omkar Kulkarni, the under-10 state champion, recovered well after losing his first round match.

In the second and third rounds, Omkar defeated Barnes and Sara Higgins. He has two points from three rounds. He will meet Gayle Williams in the fourth round.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.