The Hindu : Sport : Jha stuns Humpy, Ganguly extends lead

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Dec 13, 2004

Sport

Sport

Jha stuns Humpy, Ganguly extends lead

By P. K. Ajith Kumar

VISAKHAPATNAM, DEC. 12. Sriram Jha has always been something of a mystery at the National `A' chess championship. He would qualify for the event in style, often winning the National `B', only to fare badly when it really counts.

The story has hardly been different at the 42nd edition of India's premier domestic tourney at the Waltair Club here, as the Delhiite — who's certainly a better player than his record would suggest — could just get 2.5 points from his first nine games. But on a lazy Sunday afternoon, he finally woke up from his slumber and shocked local favourite Koneru Humpy in the 11th round.

There was, however, no swing in fortunes for Rahul Shetty who has performed a lot worse than Jha and slumped to his eighth defeat. This was hardly surprising as his opponent was overnight leader Surya Shekhar Ganguly, who extended his lead by one point. The defending champion from Kolkata was on 8.5 points with eight rounds left.

Neelotpal Das joined fellow Kolkatan Sandipan Chanda in the second position with a hard-earned victory over Abhijeet Gupta. Chanda had long ago settled for another draw, with Suvrajit Saha this time around.

Two other Grandmasters were also forced to split the point — second seed Abhijit Kunte by Sundarrajan Kidambi and Tejas Bakre by M.R. Venkatesh.

Playing from the white side of an Old Indian Defence, Jha had to survive a few anxious moments towards the end despite being a piece up. Humpy forced him to give the piece back, but resigned on the 66th move when White's pawn was all set to turn into a queen. "It was a tough game, really," said Jha. "She put me under pressure in the ending after I got the piece."

Solid preparation

Ganguly, who had black pieces, showed yet again his good preparation for the tournament by outclassing Shetty in 37 moves from a Grunfeld Defence. He went an exchange up by the 25th move and had the exposed white king at his mercy.

Neelotpal won in 50 moves of a Queen's Pawn opening after his truce offer was rejected by his younger rival. The teenager from Rajasthan had a promising position after sacrificing a pawn, but failed to come up with the correct plan and lost his queen for two pieces.

The results (11th round): Deepan Chakravarthy 6 bt Dronavalli Harika 2.5; Dibyendu Barua 5.5 bt Prathamesh Mokal 2.5; P. Konguvel 5 lost to Saptarshi Roy Choudhury 6.5; Sundarrajan Kidambi 6 drew with Abhijit Kunte 7; Sriram Jha 3.5 bt Koneru Humpy 5.5; Tejas Bakre 6 drew with M.R. Venkatesh 6; Suvrajit Saha 5 drew with Sandipan Chanda 7.5; Abhijeet Gupta 3 lost to Neelotpal Das 7.5; Rahul Shetty 1 lost to Surya Shekhar Ganguly 8.5; Roktim Bandyopadhyay 4.5 bye.

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