The Hindu : Sport / Chess : Quick draws help Ramesh retain lead

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Friday, Aug 12, 2005

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Sport - Chess

Quick draws help Ramesh retain lead

Rakesh Rao

NEW DELHI: Having done some hard running in the first 10 rounds, it was time for front-runner R. B. Ramesh and five other players to slow down when in sight of the home-stretch of the Parvsnath National `B' chess championship at the Bapu Samaj Seva Kendra here on Thursday.

Quick draws on the top three boards meant Ramesh maintained his overnight one-point lead by taking his tally to 9.5 points. B. S. Shivanandan, the beneficiary of playing out a seven-move agreed draw with Ramesh, along with P. D. S. Girinath, S. Arun Prasad, B. T. Muralikrishna and a victorious Diwakar Prasad Singh reached 8.5 points to raise their chances of being among the 14 qualifiers for the next National `A'. Girinath-Arun game ended in just five moves before Muralikrishna and Lanka Ravi called truce in 21 moves.

With two rounds to go, 13 players at eight points need at last 1.5 points to qualify. Another 14 players formed the pack of desperados at 7.5 points. These players need to win the remaining rounds to be in with a chance of qualifying.

Draws on the leading boards did not come as a surprise as the players chose to play it safe in their bid to qualify.

In fact, the same is expected on Thursday in the top-board game between Arun Prasad and Ramesh, or for that matter, the one involving Shivanandan and Muralikrishna.

Even Diwakar and Girinath are also not likely to jeopardise their chances when they meet on the third board.

Unlucky Babu

Coming back to the day's action, 12-year-old M. R. Lalith Babu, whose sensational performance so far has caught everyone's attention, was distinctly unlucky not to score over R. R. Laxman. In an ending where Babu had advanced pawns on the two extreme files of the board, Laxman managed to force a stalemate by placing his rook right. It was the inexperience of Babu that led him to a position desired by a desperate Laxman. After the draw, a much-relieved Laxman felt like a winner while Babu was left with a feeling of having lost half a point.

In the only decisive battle among the first eight boards, Diwakar outwitted former National champion P. Konguvel in 43 moves to brighten his chances of qualifying.

Sriram Jha, Dinesh Kumar Sharma, lesser known T. Purshothaman, K. Ratnakaran, Nisha Mohota, Vikramaditya Kamble, Himanshu Sharma and Arghyadip Das squeezed out victories on this day to stay alive in the qualification race.

The results (11th round): R.B. Ramesh (9.5) drew with B.S. Shivanandan (8.5); P.D.S. Girinath (8.5) drew with S. Arun Prasad (8.5); B.T. Muralikrishna (8.5) drew with Lanka Ravi (8); Diwakar Prasad Singh (8.5) bt P. Konguvel (7.5); Valay Parikh (8) drew with D. Harika (8); R.R. Laxman (8) drew with M.R. Lalith Babu (8); Deep Sengupta (7.5) drew with M.S. Thej Kumar (7.5); V. Saravanan (7.5) drew with Deepan Chakkravarthy (7.5); Sriram Jha (8) bt N. Sanjay (7); Roktim Bandyopadhyay (7) lost to Dinesh Kumar Sharma (8); G. Rohit (7) lost to T. Purushothaman (8); K. Ratnakaran (8) bt Gurpreet Pal Singh (7); Nisha Mohota (8) bt T.S. Ravi (7); Vikramaditya Kamble (8) bt Somak Palit (7); Rishi Pal Singh (7.5) drew with Saptarshi Roy (7.5); Himanshu Sharma (8) bt V. Hariharan (7); L. Ishwarya Shobana (7) lost to Arghyadip Das (8); Nassir Wajih (7) drew with C.S. Gokhale (7); Akash Thakur (6.5) lost to Abhijeet Gupta (7.5); T. Abhay (7) drew with Varugeese Koshy (7); Satchidanand Soman (7) drew with Tanmoy Patnayak (7); R. Preetham Sharma (7.5) bt Aswin Jayaram (6.5); Punit Jaiswal (6.5) lost to K. Visweswaran (7.5); M.K. Panigrahi (7.5) bt Shashikant Kutwal (6.5); N. Sudhakar Babu (7) drew with Kiran Manisha Mohanty (7); Vikas Sharma (6.5) lost to O.T. Anil Kumar (7.5); R. Ashwath (7.5) bt S. Mari Arul (6.5); Sekhar Sahu (7.5) bt N. Srinath (6.5); Praful Mehta (6) lost to Prathamesh Mokal (7); A.K. Jagadeesh (6) lost to Vishal Sareen (7); Ebenezer Joseph (6.5) drew with Parimarjan Negi (6.5); G.N. Gopal (7) bt S. Nitin (6); Y. Dhanabir (6) lost to Neeraj Mishra (7); G. Balaji (6.5) drew with Vipal Subhashi (6.5); Utpal Barua (6) lost to Akshat Khamparia (7); Abhilash Reddy (6) lost to G.B. Joshi (7); Harish Sharma (6.5) drew with Saurabh Kherdekar (6.5).

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