The Hindu : Sport / Chess : Impressive wins for Humpy and Ganguly

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Apr 17, 2006

Sport

Sport - Chess

Impressive wins for Humpy and Ganguly

V.V. Subrahmanyam

VISAKHAPATNAM: The smiles were back on the faces of Koneru Humpy and Surya Sekhar Ganguly as they scored impressive wins in the 18th round games to stay in the race for a top four spot in the 43rd National `A' men's chess championship at the Swarna Bharathi Indoor Stadium here on Sunday.

GM Ganguly outwitted B.S. Sivanandan in Petroff Defence in just 28 moves.

Despite making a couple of doubtful moves, Ganguly was surprised to see the opponent fail to equalise the position. However, with Ganguly having firm control on the `e' file and his bishop better placed, he had the liberty to launch a kingside attack.

He even sacrificed a pawn to ensure a queen and two-rook endgame in which Sivanandan had to surrender.

Humpy got back to her winning ways by outwitting Himanshu Sharma in Carokann Advanced Variation.

Despite playing a doubtful h5 move, she was surprised to see Sharma play some incorrect moves like Rc1 and Rc5 and then following it up with g3.

Soon, offering a piece sacrifice, she went for the kingside attack only to see Himanshu's king slip into a mating net.

Ravi defeats Venkatesh

IM Lanka Ravi has nothing to gain from the final rounds but he marred the calculations of GM-norm holder M.R. Venkatesh — who was hoping to finish in the top four — with a facile win in Queen's Indian Defence.

D.P. Singh of Jharkhand prevailed by beating Sundarrajan Kidambi.

GM Sandipan Chanda also bounced back into contention with a 42-move win over Arghyadip Das. With three more rounds to go, GM-elect J. Deepan Chakravarthy — who had a rest day — continues to be the sole leader with 13 points followed by Ganguly with 12.5 points, D.P. Singh with 12 and Koneru Humpy and Sandipan Chanda with 11.5 points each.

The results:

Men: 18th round: D.P. Singh (12) bt S. Kidambi (9.5); A. Gupta (8) drew with A. Kunte (10.5); H. Sharma (6) lost to K. Humpy (11.5); S.S. Ganguly (12.5) bt B.S. Sivanandan (6); Lanka Ravi (7) bt M.R. Venkatesh (11); S.R. Chowdhury (10) bt Sriram Jha (5); S. Arun Prasad (7) lost to M.S. Thejkumar (7); Arghyadip Das (6) lost to Sandipan Chanda (11.5); P.D.S. Girinath (6) drew with D.K. Sharma (6.5); V. Kamble (5.5) drew with R.B. Ramesh (8.5); J.D. Chakravarthy (13) bye.

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