Sport - Chess   

Ganguly in sole lead; IM norm for Venkatesh

By P. K. Ajith Kumar

KOZHIKODE DEC. 12. The 41st National men's `A' championship at the Chess India Complex witnessed plenty of action, for a change. Of the day's 24 games, 15 finished in one way or the other. And hearteningly, only one game was quickly drawn. The day also saw the recently-crowned National junior champion M.R. Venkatesh making his second International Master norm.

Surya Shekhar Ganguly, who has played the best chess here so far, is still firmly in the sole lead position. He has 10 points, after the 13th round on Friday, and has kept his one point lead. Today he won a crucial game against R.B. Ramesh in the morning and followed it up with a convincing victory against Vishal Sareen.

His good friend and fellow-Kolkatan Sandipan Chanda is in the sole second position with nine points. Koneru Humpy, who escaped to a draw against debutant Argyadip Das, and Abhijit Kunte are on 8.5.

Playing from the white side of a Sicilian Defence, Ganguly won in 44 moves. Ganguly had created passers on the queen-side and gone on to mop up the black pawns. Interestingly, the game followed the moves from the recent rapid game between Anand and Kramnik, till the 18th turn, when Ramesh deviated. Ganguly defeated Vishal in 39 moves of Grunfeld Defence, with his pawns

ready for coronation on either flank.

The results (13th round): R.B. Ramesh 7 lost to P. Harikrishna 8; Vishal Sareen 4.5 lost to Surya Shekhar Ganguly 10; M.R. Venkatesh 7.5 bt Sunderrajan Kidambi 6.5; M. Srinivasa Rao 1.5 lost to Vikramjit Singh 5.5; T.S. Ravi 4 lost to Sandipan Chanda 9; S. Satyapragyan 6 drew with Dibyendu Barua 7.5; Saptarshi Chowdhury 8 drew with Abhijit Kunte 8.5; Neelotpal Das 8 lost to Roktim Bandhopadhyay 6; Tejas Bakre 7.5 drew with Prathamesh Mokal 6.5; Praveen Thipsay 7 drew with Sriram Jha 5.5; Argyadip Das 4.5 drew with Koneru Humpy 8.5; Suvrajit Saha 6 drew with V. Hariharan 3.

12th round: Harikrishna bt Saha; Hariharan drew with Argyadip; Humpy bt Thipsay; Jha drew with Bakre; Prathamesh lost to Neelotpal; Roktim drew with Saptarshi Chowdhury; Kunte bt Satyapragyan; Barua bt Ravi; Chanda bt Rao; Vikramjit lost to Venkatesh; Kidambi bt Vishal; Ganguly bt Ramesh.

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