IM Sharad Tilak, K Gunasekhar of Tamil Nadu anbd Cyrus Irani of Mumbai are on the 2nd spot

Earlier last night, third-seeded IM Shekhar Sahu of Bank Sports Board scored his third successive win when he finally defeated Amar Kamat in 67 moves in Sicilian game with white pieces. Sahu sacrificed exchange early on 10th move when he captured white knight by black rook. Amar, a seventh student of Patkar Vidyalaya, Dombivli tried to fight for a draw unsuccessfully and resigned after five hours.

On another board N Konakanchi, a ninth standard student of Patkar School, Dombivli produced a good game to defeat fifth seed VKN Solanki of MTNL. Ninad's D4 openingreplied by Solanki irregularly with King's India structure. Ninad with white pieces gained two pawns upto 29th move, brought his both rooks on the 7th rank and won in 54 moves with ease. Top seed and IM Sharad Tilak defeated Pradeep Paranjpe with white pieces in 31 moves in a Sicilian defence game.

Results: Sekhar Sahu (4) bt Yashraj Aidasani (3); Ninad Konakanchi (4) bt VKN Solanki (3); Swati Ghate (4) bt V Kamble (3); RS Kashelkar (3) incomplete Ashish Thatte (3); Sharad Tilak (3.5) bt P Pranjape (2.5); Arjun Uberoi (3) drew with Sagar Sadavarte (3); K Gunasekaran (3.5) bt Shirish Kumar (2.5); Shiva SF (2.5) lost to Cyrus Irani (3.5); Prakash Gupte (2.5) drew with Arun Vaidya (2.5); K Mohan Kumar lost to SG Joshi (3)

Gole nets brace

Manoj Gole's brace enabled HOC Rasayni to register a comfortable 3-1 over MLWB Goregaon in the second division Punjab National Bank sponsored Bombay Hockey Association league played at the Mahindras Stadium.

HOC took the lead in fifth minute when Manoj Golescored a field goal.Gole added second to the tally in the 33rd minute. Baban Rahate completed the tally in the 43th minute while the consolatory goal for losers came through Prashant Mudaliar in the dying minute of the match.