KOZHIKODE: Pentala Harikrishna of AP, sponsored by Bank of Baroda, won the Susheela Thipsay Memorial Fide rated chess tournament organised by Tal Academy today with 7.5 points and with a round to spare.

Harikrishna, who first removed close rival and International Master R B Ramesh of PSCB from contention with a seventh round victory, faced some resistance in the eighth round from Tal Chess Academy's Ratnakaran, who won a pawn in French Defence. But Harikrishna took a draw by perpetual checks after 19 moves. Earlier, Harikrishna made fast progress as he capitalised on a piece blunder from Ramesh in English Opening in the seventh round.

Results (8th round): Ratnakaran 4 drew with Harikrishna 7.5; R B Ramesh 6 bt K R Madhusoodanan 0.5; Nazia Nona 1 lost to M B Muralidharan 4; K Haridas 4 bt Majeed 4.5; Mitrakanth 4.5 drew with K Murugan 4.

Anand's next

CHENNAI: World No 2 Viswanathan Anand is to play his next tournament, a category 19 single round robin event, inDortmund, Germany. The championship will be held from July 10-17.

Besides Anand, other top players participating in the tournament would be Vladmir Kramnik, Anatoly Karpov, Jan Timman, Michael Adams, Veselin Topallov, Peter Leko and Ivan Sokolov, a press release from TNQ Sponsorship, the representatives of Anand in India, said.

- Agencies