Friday, Dec 19, 2003
Friday, Dec 19, 2003 |
| Sport | ||||
|
News:
Front Page |
National |
Southern States |
Other States |
International |
Opinion |
Business |
Sport |
Miscellaneous |
Advts: Classifieds | Employment | Obituary | Sport
-
Chess
By P.K. Ajith Kumar
First, the only female player in the fray, Koneru Humpy became the first one to take the sole lead. Then she was replaced at the end of the ninth round by Surya Shekhar Ganguly, who then went on to play some very good chess and looked well set to take the crown. Then on Wednesday, he lost from a drawn position, which not only made his position a lot less unassailable but opened up the whole tournament. A day later he is joined in the lead by his friend Sandipan Chanda and Pendyala Harikrishna, who has provided the latest twist to the tale. The top seed, who scored a brilliant win against T.S. Ravi with a queen sacrifice, suddenly finds himself with an excellent chance to win his maiden senior National title. And he had scored just half-a-point at the end of the third round! With just two rounds left, Ganguly, who was held to a draw by Praveen Thipsay, Hari and Chanda have 15.5 points each after the 21st round on Thursday. All the three have probably done enough already to qualify for the Indian team. Abhijit Kunte, who was held to a draw by Sriram Jha, and Humpy have 14 points each. And a point behind them are Barua, who drew with Humpy, and Tejas Bakre, who won his crucial game against Ramesh. They too could still afford to think of a place in the Indian team. Harikrishna, with black pieces in a Three Knights game, had to produce something extraordinary to get the better of a passive Ravi. He did that, with that spectacular queen sacrifice on the 21st move, for three pieces. Ravi, who was playing under time pressure, missed a rook exchange on the 25th move which would have given him some hopes of a draw. Harikrishna went on to win what was the game of the tournament so far in 37 moves. It was also his fifth straight win. For Bakre it was a fourth successive win when he beat Ramesh in 32 moves from the white side of a Sicilian Defence. And it was his second win in as many days against a Grandmaster, as he'd beaten Ganguly on Wednesday. Humpy and Barua drew in 20 moves of Slav Defence, while Ganguly and Thipsay signed the peace treaty after 17 moves of Ruy Lopez exchange variation. In the day's biggest upset, debutant M. Srinivasa Rao beat International Master S. Satyapragyan in 63 moves of Sicilian Defene. The results (21st round): T.S. Ravi 7.5 lost to Pendyala Harikrishna 15.5; S. Satyapragyan 8 lost to M. Srinivasa Rao 3.5; Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury 11 drew with M.R. Venkatesh 11; Neelotpal Das 12 bt Vishal Sareen 7.5; Tejas Bakre 13 bt R.B. Ramesh 12; Praveen Thipsay 10.5 drew with Surya Shekhar Ganguly 15.5; Arghyadip Das 8 drew with Sunderrajan Kidambi 11.5; Suvrajit Saha 8.5 drew with Vikramjit Singh 8.5; V. Hariharan 4 lost to Sandipan Chanda 15.5; Koneru Humpy 14 drew with Dibyendu Barua 13; Sriram Jha 8 drew with Abhijit Kunte 14; Prathamesh Mokal 10 drew with Roktim Bandhopadhyay 10.
Printer friendly
page
News:
Front Page |
National |
Southern States |
Other States |
International |
Opinion |
Business |
Sport |
Miscellaneous |
|
|
|
The Hindu Group: Home | About Us | Copyright | Archives | Contacts | Subscription Group Sites: The Hindu | Business Line | The Sportstar | Frontline | The Hindu eBooks | Home |
Copyright © 2003, The
Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of
this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of
The Hindu
|
