The Hindu : Sport / Chess : Laxman has the last laugh in the Cusat Open

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Friday, Jul 01, 2005

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Laxman has the last laugh in the Cusat Open

Principal Correspondent

KOCHI: After some trouble early on, Chennai's R.R. Laxman had the last laugh at the Cusat Open here on Thursday.

The 22-year-old International Master, who suffered a stunning loss in the third round and trailed the leader by one and half points after the seventh, recovered remarkably in the final phase to retain the title.

"It's my first major trophy this year," said Laxman, a second year MA student of Annamalai University, who also won the top cash prize of Rs. 15,000 at the end of the all-India FIDE-rated tournament.

Laxman and three others — Aswin Jayaram, R. Balasubramanium and Ram S. Krishnan — were in the lead after Wednesday evening's penultimate round. But when the new International Master Balasubramanium and Ram played it safe and settled for a seven-move draw in the final round, he was thrilled.

"I had the worst progressive score among the four, so when I saw the draw on the second board, I found new inspiration. Had one of them won today, I'd have lost my title," said the third-seeded Laxman.

Playing black, he defeated Aswin Jayaram after some solid play in the Ruy Lopez Berlin Variation. After achieving an equal position, Laxman first closed the Queen-side. And while Aswin racked his brains to solve the Queen-side puzzle, he pushed his pawn on the King-side.

As he developed a mating attack on the King-side, this area was also closed. The mating attack was sufficient for Laxman to grab a pawn in the endgame and win the 80-move affair.

Meanwhile, Kerala champion Ratnakaran who led for a major part of the tournament before losing two rounds on Wedensday, bounced back strongly and finished runner-up. His Southern Railway teammate, Preetham Sharma, was third.

However, the top two seeds had a disappointing tournament. While the top-seeded International Master P.D.S. Girinath finished 60th, his second-seeded Andhra Pradesh team-mate, the under-14 girls World champion Dronavalli Harika was 31st in the final order.

The Cochin University Vice Chancellor P.K. Abdul Azis gave away the prizes.

The results (Tenth round):

Aswin Jayaram (TN, 7.5) lost to R.R. Laxman (TN, 8.5); R. Balasubramanium (ICF, 8) drew with Ram S. Krishnan (TN, 8); K. Ratnakaran (S. Rly, 8) bt D.P. Singh (Jkd, 7); M.B. Muraleedharan (Ker, 7.5) drew with C. Natarajan (ICF, 7.5); R. Preetham Sharma (S. Rly, 8) bt T.J. Suresh Kumar (ICF, 7); O.T. Anilkumar (Ker, 8) bt K. Nikhilesh Kumar (AP, 7).

P. Maheswaran (TN, 7.5) bt Dronavalli Harika (AP, 6.5); B.T. Murali Krishnan (S. Rly, 7.5) bt P. Saravana Krishnan (TN, 6.5); S. Nitin (TN, 7.5) bt J. Ramakrishna (AP, 6.5); T. Purushothaman (AP, 7.5) bt Rahul Ved (Mah, 6.5). Derric Pinto (Kar, 7) drew with Laisram Imocha (Asm, 7); K.A. Unas (Ker, 7) drew with K. Alex Thomas (Ker, 7); Y. Syed Anwar Shazuli (ICF, 6.5) drew with B. Adhiban (TN, 7); P. Phoobalan (TN, 7) bt V. Vijayaraghavan (TN, 6).

Nimmy A. George (Ker, 6) lost to C. Praveen Kumar (TN, 7); T.U. Naveen Kannan (TN, 6.5) drew with T.V.R. Vijayaraghavan (AP, 6.5); N.T. Suresh Kumar (Ker, 7) bt Vinoth Kumar (TN, 6). Ajeesh Antony (Ker, 7) bt U.C. Mohanan (HIL, 6); Yashpal Arora (MP, 6.5) drew with B. Ramanababu (AP, 6.5); E.P. Nirmal (Ker, 7) bt Merryston David Scanny (TN, 6).

Final placings (top 10): 1. R.R. Laxman (TN, 8.5 pts), 2. K. Ratnakaran (S.Rly, 8), 3. R. Preetham Sharma (S. Rly, 8), 4. Balasubramanium Ramanathan (ICF, 8), 5. Ram S. Krishnan (TN, 8), 6. O.T. Anilkumar (Ker, 8); 7. C. Natarajan (ICF, 7.5), 8. T. Purushothaman (AP, 7.5), 9. B.T. Murali Krishna (S. Rly, 7.5), 10. Aswin Jayaram (TN, 7.5).

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