The Hindu : Sport / Chess : Ashwin and Suvrajit share lead

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Tuesday, Sep 05, 2006

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Sport - Chess

Ashwin and Suvrajit share lead

Rakesh Rao

AHMEDABAD: Continuing his dream run, Ashwin Jayaram stopped Woman Grandmaster Eesha Karavade and shared the lead with former champion Suvrajit Saha at the end of five rounds of the National `B' chess championship at the Karnavati Club here on Monday.

On a day when seasoned International Masters N. Sudhakar Babu, T.S. Ravi, C.S. Gokhale and Anup Deshmukh lost, seventh-seeded teenager G. Rohit's recovery act suffered a major blow at the hands of Delhi's unheralded Karun Duggal.

Experienced IMs like Rahul Shetty and V. Saravanan had to draw with lesser-rated rivals like Krishan Soni and Sohan Phadke. Among the ladies, WGM Swati Ghate joined Eesha in defeat.

After the top-board encounter between overnight joint leaders Shyam Nikhil and Vikramaditya Kamble ended in a draw in just 15 moves, Ashwin went on to overpower Eesha in 42 moves.

Though Ashwin's rating of 2221 is 95 points less than Eesha's, the youngster was tipped to maintain his fine form that saw him beat two IMs on Sunday.

Capitalising on a mistake

Saha had to fight longer to beat Arjun Tiwari on the second board. In this 60-move encounter, Saha exploited a minor mistake from his younger rival in the opening phase and slowly proved superior.

Meanwhile, the malfunctioning of analogue chess clocks in the games involving IMs P. Konguvel and S. Satyapragyan saw these introvert individuals raise their voices in desperation.

Konguvel went on to win the game after an amicable settlement with rival M. Vinoth Kumar but Satyapragyan's rival Debashish Mukherjee decided to file a written protest over the decision given by Chief Arbiter V. Kameswaran. The Appeal's Committee was to meet later and decide the fate of the match.

The results (fifth round): P. Shyam Nikhil (4.5) drew with Vikramaditya Kamble (4.5); Suvrajit Saha (5) bt Arjun Tiwari (4); Eesha Karavade (4) lost to Ashwin Jayaram (5); K. Ratnakaran (4.5) bt C. Praveen Kumar (3.5); Sudhakar Babu (3.5) lost to Valay Parikh (4.5); Lanka Ravi (4.5) bt K. Gunasekaran (3.5); Varugeese Koshy (4.5) bt Saptarshi Roy (3.5); Roktim Banyopadhyay (4) drew with Nasir Wajih (4); Laltu Chatterjee (4) drew with Dinesh Sharma (4); Thej Kumar (4.5) bt Abhishek Das (3.5); T.S. Ravi (3.5) lost to Akshat Khamparia (4.5); Sriram Sarja (3) lost to Poobesh Anand (4); M. Vinoth Kumar (3) lost to P. Konguvel (4); Amardeep Bartakke (3) lost to R.R. Laxman (4); Himanshu Sharma (4) bt M. Vinay Kumar (3); R. Ashwath (4) bt C.S. Gokhale (3); B.T. Murali Krishnan (4) bt P. Praveen Prasad (3); D. Harika (4) bt Vikas Sharma (3); P.K. Singh (3) lost to Prathamesh Mokal (4); Debashis Das (3.5) drew with P.D.S. Girinath (3.5); Somak Palit (4) bt Y. Dhanabir Singh (3); N. Sanjay (4) bt S. Nitin (3); T. Purushothaman (3.5) drew with O.T. Anil Kumar (3.5); Atanu Lahiri (4) bt V.S. Negi (3); Moti Ram (3) lost to B. Adhiban (4); M.B. Muralidharan (3.5) drew with N. Srinath (3.5); Krishan Soni (3.5) drew with Rahul Shetty (3.5); M.R. Lalith Babu (4) bt Kiran Mohanty (3); Soumya Ranjan Mishra (4) bt Vikram Saralaya (3); S. Rishipal Singh (3) lost to Shreyansh Daklia (4); Anup Deshmukh (3) lost to Biswajeet Chatterjee (4); S. Mari Arul (4) bt Mehar Chinna Reddy (3); Vikramjit Singh (4) bt Swapnil Dhopade (3); Chinmay Kulkarni (3.5) drew with Syed Shazuli (3.5); Gurpreetpal Singh (3.5) drew with Padmini Rout (3.5); G.B. Prakash (3.5) bt Devinder Singh Suri (2.5); G. Rohit (2.5) lost to Karun Duggal (3.5); Sohan Phadke (3) drew with V. Saravanan (3); Swati Ghate (2.5) lost to Shailesh Raval (3.5).

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