The Hindu : Sport / Chess : Close finish on the cards

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Dec 18, 2004

Sport

Sport - Chess

Close finish on the cards

By P. K. Ajith Kumar

Surya Shekhar Ganguly watches the game between Sandipan Chanda and Koneru Humpy on Friday. — Photo: C.V.Subrahmanyam

VISAKHAPATNAM, DEC. 17. Surya Shekhar Ganguly and Sandipan Chanda, the buddies from Kolkata, have 11.5 points apiece, after they drew their games today in contrasting style at the end of the 18th round of the National `A' chess championship at the Waltair Club.

While Ganguly, who adopted French Defence against Saptarshi Roy Choudhury, played just 11 moves before signing peace, Chanda fought all the way for a full point against a determined Koneru Humpy.

In fact, all but one of the day's nine games were drawn, most of them rather quickly. Sundarrajan Kidambi was the only winner, against P. Konguvel, and he's taken his tally to 11 points. That's what his score will remain though, as he has a bye in the final round.

In that final round on Sunday, Ganguly faces Prathamesh Mokal, who hasn't won a game here, while Chanda meets Abhijit Kunte, who hasn't lost one. And both have white pieces. So the pairing might favour Ganguly, but the tie-break wouldn't, according to Deputy Arbiter R.R. Vasudevan.

"In the case of a tie, Chanda would be the champion, as his tie-break score is better in the Koya System," he said. "Though Kunte has 10.5 points, he stands no chance even if he wins tomorrow and Ganguly loses."

"It was an interesting King's Indian game between Chanda and Humpy, who had black. White had sacrificed an exchange early on, but Humpy was able to find the right answers over the board despite facing an unfamiliar opening, and after the fortunes fluctuated, the game finally ended in 48 moves with opposite-coloured bishops.

The results (18th round): Koneru Humpy 9.5 drew with Sandipan Chanda 11.5; Abhijit Kunte 10.5 drew with Neelotpal Das 9.5; Saptarshi Roy Choudhury 9 drew with Surya Shekhar Ganguly 11.5; Prathamesh Mokal 6 drew with Rahul Shetty 4; Dronavalli Harika 6.5 drew with Abhijit Gupta 6.5; Roktim Bandyopadhyay 9 drew with Suvrajit Saha 7.5; Deepan Chakravarthy 7.5 drew with Tejas Bakre 9.5; Dibyendu Barua 8 drew with Sriram Jha 7.5; P. Konguvel 7.5 lost to Sundarrajan Kidambi 11; M.R. Venkatesh 10 bye.

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