The Hindu : Sport / Chess : No change at the top

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Dec 10, 2004

Sport

Sport - Chess

No change at the top

By P.K. Ajith Kumar

VISAKHAPATNAM, DEC. 9. Though Surya Shekhar Ganguly and Sandipan Chanda received warning signals from various quarters, the Kolkata lads still lead the table, with six points after eight rounds, in the 42nd National `A' chess championship at the Waltair Club here on Thursday.

The day was marked by fine performances from some of their main challengers, as Tejas Bakre held Ganguly, former champion and second seed Abhijit Kunte showed what he's capable of with a crushing victory against Deepan Chakravarthy and Koneru Humpy humbled Dibyendu Barua.

And Neelotpal Das, who like Ganguly and Chanda is a product of Kolkata's Alekhine Club, jumped to the sole second spot with 5.5 points.

Humpy humbles Barua

Playing on the white side of a Slav Defence, Humpy romped home in 37 moves, having taken an early advantage, as Barua didn't handle the opening correctly; she was a pawn up and also had the bishop pair. She needed this win, after being held to a draw in the morning by Deepan Chakravarthy.

Kunte was also forced to split the point in his seventh round game, by Roktim Bandyopadhyay. Then he had his lunch, rested a bit and came up with his best against a hapless Deepan. Kunte won in 28 moves from the white side of a Tango, after giving his queen for three pieces six moves earlier.

The moring round also saw Ganguly coming up with another surprising opening, against Sriram Jha. He played Benko Gambit, but Jha, however, was able to resist Black's attacking plans till the beginning of the end-game.

In the double-rook ending, Ganguly took his king all the way to other end of the board on the second rank, where he'd also parked both his rooks. Jha, on the other hand, was severely handicapped by a trapped rook, and he resigned after 60 moves.

The results:

Eighth round: Rahul Shetty 1 lost to Suvrajit Saha 3.5; Surya Shekhar Ganguly 6 drew with Tejas Bakre 4.5; Neelotpal Das 5.5 bt Sriram Jha 2; Sandipan Chanda 6 drew with Sundarrajan Kidambi 5; M.R. Venkatesh 4 lost to P. Konguvel 4.5; Koneru Humpy 4 bt Dibyendu Barua 4; Abhijit Kunte 4.5 bt Deepan Chakravarthy 3.5; Saptarshi Roy Choudhury 4.5 drew with Roktim Bandyopadhyay 3.5; Prathamesh Mokal 2 drew with Dronavalli Harika 2; Abhijit Gupta 2 — bye.

Seventh round: Harika lost to Saptarshi; Roktim drew with Kunte; Deepan drew with Humpy; Barua drew with Venkatesh; Konguvel lost to Chanda; Kidambi drew with Neelotpal; Jha lost to Ganguly; Bakre bt Shetty; Saha lost to Gupta; Mokal — bye.

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