KARACHI, April 26: The 26th National Chess Championship moved into round six with Mehmood Lodhi of Punjab surging ahead with a clean sweep of five points from five rounds.

In round five played in the morning session, Lodhi held his own against Feroze Alam, ending the game in 34 moves.

Meanwhile, IM Shahzad Mirza, who was beaten yesterday by Imtiaz Ahmed staged a comeback today defeating Fahim Anwer easily.

Speaking to Dawn, Shahzad stated that he considered himself out of practice as a result of which he could not fare so well yesterday.

Asked about his possible chances of making a comeback, Shahzad remarked: “Lodhi is in the lead and it will be extremely difficult to catch up with him.”

Amir Karim, whom experts contend is very much in the running for the title beat Riasat Ali to hold his position with 4.5 pts just ½ pt behind Lodhi.

Amir, incidently, is playing Lodhi in round six which is currently in progress. The other top contenders who cannot be struck out of the race are Wahi Hussain, Haseeb Ahmad, Feroze Alam, Shakir Hussain. Imtiaz Ahmed and Wasim Akram.

The round six proceedings were slightly disrupted due to players from Punjab protesting about their dues being unpaid resulting in the session starting late.

Results:

Round 4:

IM Mehmood Lodhi bt NM Wasim Akram, NM Aamir Karim d Haseeb Ahmad, Feroze Alam bt Imtiaz Ahmed, IM Shahzad bt Hafeez Bajwa, NM Shahzad bt M Shahzad, NM Asad Rampuri drew t Muddassir Iqbal, Nm M Waqar Drew Riasat Ali, Shafiq Sr bt Noman Mustafa, Wahid Hussain bt NM NM Waqar Madni and Asif-ur-Rehman bt Ayub.

Round 5:

IM Mehmood Lodhi bt Feroze Alam, Im Shahzad Mirza bt Fahim Anwer, Abdul Majid bt Noman Mustafa, Amir Karim bt Riasat Ali, Wahid Hussain bt M Sharif, Haseeb Ahmad drew Akhtar Hussain, Umer Farooq bt Abdul, M Waqar bt Faraz Saleem, Shahzad Alam drew Faizun ullah, Wasim Akram bt Shahzad Ahmed.

Points Table:

Mehmood Lodhi (5), Amir Karim (4.5), Wahid Hussain (4.5) Haseeb Ahmad (4), Feroze Alam(4), Gulrez Nazir (4), Shakir Hussain (4), Imtiaz Ahmed (4), Waseem Akram (4) and Shahzad Mirza 3.5.