The Hindu : Sport / Chess : Harika holds Humpy, Kidambi moves ahead

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Dec 08, 2004

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Sport - Chess

Harika holds Humpy, Kidambi moves ahead

By P. K. Ajith Kumar

VISAKHAPATNAM, DEC. 7. Dronavalli Harika admires Koneru Humpy but not to the extent of getting overawed when meeting her idol across the chessboard.

On Tuesday, in the fifth round of the 42nd National `A' chess championship at the Waltair Club, the World under-14 champion did well to hold India's finest female player ever to a draw again.

This was the third meeting between the two Telugu-speaking prodigies and both the previous encounters were also drawn.

The day saw a spate of draws, with just two of the nine games producing decisive results. And one of the day's winners — Sundarrajan Kidambi — moved into the sole lead with four points.

"He's the man in form," said second seed Abhijit Kunte, the day's other winner against Prathamesh Mokal.

Kidambi indeed looks in good touch. He needed just 25 moves to make short work of Rahul Shetty, who slumped to his fourth defeat despite coming up with an excellent opening preparation today. "But I still have to face the tougher opponents," said the Chennai-based Kidambi shortly after posting his third win in two days.

Kidambi is scheduled to meet defending champion Surya Shekhar Ganguly, Neelotpal Das and Sandipan Chanda in the next three rounds.

The formidable young trio from Kolkata is in the second position with 3.5 points along with their citymate Dibyendu Barua. Both Ganguly and Chanda settled for quick draws today, with P. Konguvel and Deepan Chakravarthy respectively.

You wouldn't expect something similar to happen in the game between the two young ladies in India's premier men's domestic tourney.

Humpy and Harika agreed to draw only after reaching a rook-pawn ending, which promised nothing else, from a Grunfeld Defence. "There wasn't much I could've done today and sometimes you have to take a draw with black pieces," Humpy said after the 45-move game.

In a King's Indian game, Kidambi made the most of a gross miscalculation from the out-of-form Rahul, who fatally underestimated White's exchange sacrifice and soon paid the penalty.

Neelotpal

stands firm

The day's most interesting game was the one between Barua and Neelotpal. Barua surprised Neelotpal with his choice of Keres Attack and eventually drew the game by giving perpetual checks. He had the edge, though, in a complicated battle but his younger rival defended well in a game that lasted 37 moves.

The results (fifth round): Prathamesh Mokal (Mah) 1.5 lost to Abhijit Kunte (PSPB) 2.5; Dronavalli Harika (AP) 1 drew with Koneru Humpy (AP) 2; Roktim Bandyopadhyay (Ben) 2 drew with M.R. Venkatesh (PSPB) 3; Deepan Chakravarthy (TN) 2.5 drew with Sandipan Chanda (PSPB) 3.5; Dibyendu Barua (Tisco) 3.5 drew with Neelotpal Das (PSPB) 3.5; P. Konguvel (PSPB) 3 drew with Surya Shekhar Ganguly (PSPB) 3.5; Sundarrajan Kidambi (PSPB) 4 bt Rahul Shetty (IA) 0.5; Sriram Jha (LIC) 1.5 drew with Abhijeet Gupta (Raj) 1; Tejas Bakre (IA) 2 drew with Suvrajit Saha (Ben) 2.5; Saptarshi Roy Choudhury (Ben) 2.5 bye.

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