MUMBAI, August 15: Sanjay Modi won the Entrant's Division chess tournament at the Zhandu Pharmaceutical Works Canteen today.

He defeated Vivek Thoopa in the ninth round of the Bombay Chess Association organised tournament and ended with eight points out of a possible nine. Chaitanya Vaidya, a seventh standard student of Abhinav Vidyalaya, was second with 7.5 points.

On the top board, eighth seed Modi handled the white side of the king's gambit declined game against Thoopal. Thoopal lost his queen to save his king and resigned on the 16th move.

Dombivli lad Vaidya drew with Janvion Rodrigues of St Andrew's Junior College in 18 moves while Nitin Nawar of Mumbai Police, who was leading at one stage, finished sixth after drawing his last round game with Shahvir Aga.Players promoted to senior division: 1 Sanjay Modi (8), 2 Chaitanya Vaidya (7.5), 3-6 Nitin Nawar, Vivek Thoopal, Munish Kapoor, Janvion Rodrigues (7 each); 7-12 Alam Parvez, Abhijit Bhurke, Rajesh Kamath, Machindra Wakhare, Sagar Talekar, Shahvir Aga (7 each); 13-20 Ashish Thatte, Dinesh Barodiya, M Srinath, Kuldeep Vhatwar, Vishal Gala, Nikhil Kamat, Nikhil Bhat andd Chandrakant Reddy (6.5 points each)

Balaji, Bhilare win: Both the FIDE rated players, N Balaji (ELO 2175) and PB Bhilare (ELO 2080) won both their games of the seven-rounds Swiss League chess event organised by the YMCC along with Bombay Chess Association today.

In the second round, top seed Balaji defeated Abhishek Pradhan, while second seed Bhilare accounted for Pravin Kamble.

Others to win second consecutive game are Prashant Boricha, Shrinivas Adam, Prakash Patole, Kishorekumar and Amit Cheulkar.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.