Puravi Sinha makes a move against Utpal Baruah at the all-Assam prize money chess tournament in Guwahati on Thursday. Top seed Baruah was held by Sinha to a draw. Picture by Manas Paran

Guwahati, July 28: Rajib Dhar of Guwahati led the points tally with seven points from eight rounds at the end of the penultimate day of the all-Assam open prize money chess tournament under way here.

Playing with white pieces, the FIDE-rated player outwitted Santanu Borpatra Gohain of Sivasagar in 42 moves today.

However, another FIDE-rated player and top seed Utpal Baruah of Oil India Limited, Duliajan, was held to a draw by the woman FIDE-rated player, Puravi Sinha of Dibru Chess Academy (DCA).

In other games played on the day, Manjit Taw and Projit Phukan got the better of N. Sashank Singh and O. Samarjit Singh respectively. All four shared the second position with 6.5 points per head while Santanu, Trailokya Nanda, Mrinal Kakoty, Nilotpal Boithaque, L. Biren Singh and Dipjyoti Borah were jointly placed in the third slot with six points each.

The final round of the tournament will be played from 9 am onwards tomorrow.

National B meet

Manjit Taw, Puravi Sinha, Manoj Baruah (all DCA) and Basanta Singh (Hojai) will represent Assam in the 43rd national B chess meet to be held at Bapu Samaj Sewa Kendra in New Delhi from August 2.

Besides the quartet, 23 other Assam players will participate in the tournament as donor players. They are Bipul Das (DCA), Swapan Kumar Brahma (Kokrajhar), Dipak Patgiri (Tinsukia), Santanu B. Gohain and Utpal Baruah (OIL), Bidyut Bikash Handique and Trailokya Nanda (Jorhat), Arnab Kumar Mishra (BRPL), Sujoy Das and Prasenjit Purkayastha (Karimganj), Sashi Rajkonwar, Pranab Kumar Nath, Chiraranjan Bhuyan, Debashish Dutta, Prikshit Upadhaya, Rajkumar Shrinjan Singha, Shahmin Abdul, Rajib Dhar, Mrinal Deka, Biswajit Bharadwaj, Nilotpal Mishra, Sashank Singh and Rana Dey (all Guwahati).

Manik Dutta of Charaideo will accompany the team as manager.