Reddy, in his first appearance in nationals, opted for Modern Benoni defence and launched a decisive attack on queen-side. He gained a pawn in the middle game. Gupta, playing passively, lost a minor piece for a pawn and finally threw in the towel after 46 moves.

Junior national chess

Jalandhar: Reigning Asian Junior Champion, International Master Tejas Bakre and IM K Sasikiran would be among over 150 players vying for honours in the 28th National Junior Chess championship beginning here on December 24.

The championship would also serve as selection trials for the Asian Junior and World Junior Chess Championship, Dr JS Cheema, organising secretary of the championship said.

Ramkrishna leads

HYDERABAD: JRamakrishna of Andhra Pradesh held on to his slender half-point lead by drawing with International Master NK Mishra of Tata Steel in the 8th round of the third Global Trust Bank International Rating Chess Tournament.

Results (8th round): J Ramakrishna 7.5 drew with Neeraj Kumar Mishra 7; Lanka Ravi 6.5 drew with S Vijayalakshmi 6.5; CS Gokhale 7 bt P Mitrakanth 6; Ravi Bhave 6.5 drew with Jayant Gokhale 6.5; PDS Girinath 6.5 drew wit DK Mishra 6.5; Rahul Shetty 6.5 bt K Visweswaran 6; Vishal Sareen 6 drew with Vedant Goswami 6; GB Joshi 5.5 lost to Sriram Jha 6.5; TS Ravi 5.5 lost to Gurpreetpal Singh 6.5; C Natarajan 5.5 lost to Preetam Sharma 6.5. Sujoy Bhattacharya 5.5 lost to K Murugan 6; Rishipal Singh 5 lost to Sandipan Chanda 6; Sekhar Sahu 5.5 drew with S Meenakshi 5.5.