Sport - Chess   

Humpy loses to Neelotpal

By P. K. Ajith Kumar

KOZHIKODE DEC. 10. Like India's cricket captain Sourav, Grandmaster Surya Shekhar Ganguly too has reasons to feel that life can be pretty good. He came here shortly after winning the Asian zonal meet in Dhaka and thus qualifying for the next World championship. He began as one of the favourites to take the title in the 41st National men's `A' chess championship and has done nothing wrong so far to change that perception. On Wednesday, he extended his sole lead to one full point, at the end of the 11th round. He is on eight points, going into Thursday's rest day. Twelve rounds still remain to be played in this marathon tourney.

The day's big news was Koneru Humpy's second straight defeat to a Kolkata lad. She went down to Neelotpal Das, who too had offered a draw like her conqueror on Tuesday, Saptarshi Roy Choudhury. Humpy may have had to pay dearly for not accepting those draws, but at the National `A' where draws are common, her fighting spirit has been refreshing.

Humpy quickly drew her afternoon encounter with Tejas Bakre though, which wasn't really surprising, considering the tough time she had in the last two games.The results (11th round): Surya Shekhar Ganguly 8 drew with Pendyala Harikrishna 6; R.B. Ramesh 7 drew with Sunderrajan Kidambi 5.5; Vishal Sareen 4.5 lost to Vikramjit Singh 4.5; M.R. Venkatesh 5.5 lost to Sandipan Chanda 7; M. Srinivasa Rao 1.5 lost to Dibyendu Barua 6; T.S. Ravi 4 drew with Abhijit Kunte 7; S. Satyapragyan 5.5 drew with Roktim Bandhopadhyay 4.5; Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury 7 drew with Prathamesh Mokal 6; Neelotpal Das 7 drew with Sriram Jha 4.5; Tejas Bakre 6.5 drew with Koneru Humpy 7; Praveen Thipsay 6.5 bt V. Hariharan 2; Argyadip Das 3.5 drew with Suvrajit Saha 5.5.

Tenth round: Harikrishna drew with Argyadip; Saha drew with Thipsay; Hariharan lost to Bakre; Humpy lost to Neelotpal; Jha drew with Saptarshi; Prathamesh drew with Satyapragyan; Roktim bt Ravi; Kunte bt Rao; Barua drew with Venkatesh; Chanda bt Sareen; Vikramjit drew with Ramesh; Kidambi drew with Ganguly.

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