The Hindu : Sport : Champion stuff from Ganguly

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Apr 19, 2006

Sport

Sport

Champion stuff from Ganguly

V.V. Subrahmanyam

Photo: K.R. Deepak

PROUD WINNERS: GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly and WGM Swathi Ghate pose with their trophies.

VISAKHAPATNAM: Under pressure, Surya Sekhar Ganguly played like a champion to outplay Sundarrajan Kidambi and then saw Sandipan Chanda do him a big favour by getting the better of overnight leader J. Deepan Chakravarthy in the final round of the 43rd National men's chess championship at the Swarna Bharati Indoor Stadium here on Tuesday. Ganguly thus completed a hat-trick in the strongest Indian tournament.

Tremendous pressure

"I never played under such tremendous pressure as I did today against Kidambi, who I know is very good in the middle and end-games. I must confess it was a brilliant game for me," said a delighted Ganguly.

He later confided that he had prepared till late in the night and even half-an-hour before the day's game to come up with a line that could put his opponent in a fix.

"I came to `kill' him on the board today and I am happy I was successful, that too with black," he stressed. In Grunfeld Defence, Ganguly saw his opponent sacrifice a pawn and come up with some erratic continuation.

With Kidambi's king stranded in the centre, Ganguly launched a vicious attack with his queen and knight to wrap up the game in just 23 moves.

Ganguly thanked Charles Gomes (father of Mary Ann Gomes, who finished second in the women's championship here) for telling him on Monday night to do his job well and not bother about others. "That's the reason I did not move from the table today till I finished off the game," said Ganguly.

Once Ganguly was through, the focus shifted to Chanda taking on Deepan, where the former played quality chess to win in a Sicilian. Deepan's inability to develop his pieces in contrast to Chanda's better pawn structure saw the latter clinch the issue and dash Deepan's hopes of completing a `double' — becoming the Grandmaster and winning the National title.

Ramesh outwitted

Then D.P. Singh, the surprise hero here, outwitted GM R.B. Ramesh in Ruy Lopez Closed Variation to edge out GM Abhijit Kunte, who had earlier defeated IM Lanka Ravi, and finish third. Though Ganguly, Chanda and D.P. Singh finished with 14 points each, the top three places were declared by virtue of the tiebreaker rule and better progressive score.

In the women's championship, WGM Swathi Ghate picked her maiden title in her ninth appearance by settling for a friendly draw with 18-year-old Mary Ann to finish a clear winner with 14 points. Mary Ann with 13 points booked a slot for her maiden Olympiad.

Harika is third

WGM Dronavalli Harika, playing under enormous mental pressure because of her ailing mother, showed her class in the final round against Supriya Maji in Slav irregular defence and clinched the third spot with 12.5 points.

The top three from the men and women's sections qualified for the Olympiad to be held in Italy next month and the top six from each category will represent India in the coming international tournaments.

The results:

Men (21st round): R.B. Ramesh (9) lost to D.P. Singh (14); Sandipan Chanda (14) bt J. Deepan Chakravarthy (13.5); M.S. Thejkumar (9) drew with Vikramaditya Kamble (6.5); Sriram Jha (6.5) drew with P.D.S. Girinath (7); M.R. Venkatesh (13) bt Arghyadip Das (7); B.S. Sivananda (7) lost to S. Arun Prasad (9); Koneru Humpy (13.5) bt Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury (11); Abhijit Kunte (13.5) bt Lanka Ravi (8); Sundarrajan Kidambi (10.5) lost to Surya Sekhar Ganguly (14); Abhijeet Gupta (9) drew with Himanshu Sharma (7); Dinesh K. Sharma (8) bye.

Women (19th round): S. Meenakshi (12) drew with Aarthie Ramaswamy (9); Dronavalli Harika (12.5) bt Maji Supriya (6.5); Nisha Mohota (12) bt Anupama Gokhale (4); Mary Ann Gomes (13) drew with Swathi Ghate (14); Eesha Karvade (11) drew with J.E. Kavitha (7); Amruta Mokal (9) bt Kiran Monisha Mohanty (8.5); Alka Das (4.5) drew with Soumya Swaminathan (8); Ishwarya Shobana (6.5) lost to Swati Mohota (8.5); Nimmy A. George (7.5) lost to I. Ramyakrishna (8.5); S. Vijayalakshmi (11.5) bye.

Final placings (by virtue of better progressive scores): Men: 1. Surya Sekhar Ganguly 14 pts, 2. Sandipan Chanda 14, 3. D.P. Singh 14, 4. Abhijit Kunte 13.5, 5. J. Deepan Chakravarthy 13.5, 6. Koneru Humpy 13.5.

Women: 1. Swathi Ghate 14 pts, 2. Mary Ann Gomes 13, 3. Dronavalli Harika 12.5, 4. Subbaraman Meenakshi 12, 5. Nisha Mohota 12, 6. Subbaraman Vijayalakshmi 11.5.

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