The Hindu : Sport : Venkatesh holds Short

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Friday, Nov 24, 2006
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Venkatesh holds Short

P.K. Ajith Kumar

MUMBAI: Shortly after posting his third easy win in as many games, Nigel Short had remarked on Wednesday night, "I think the real tournament for me will begin with the next game."

Chennai-based M.R. Venkatesh proved him right, holding the top-seeded Englishman to a creditable draw in the fourth round of the ONGC-LIC Commonwealth chess championship at Eskay Resorts here on Thursday.

Draw was indeed the flavour of the day, as none of the top four boards failed to produce a decisive result.

On the fifth board though, Abhijeet Gupta beat S. Meenakshi and shot into the sole lead. The 17-year-old from Rajasthan has four full points, with six rounds remaining.

It was a day to remember also for D. Harika, who punished fifth seed Abhijit Kunte for his lapses. One more Grandmaster bit the dust, as Niaz Murshed of Bangladesh was humbled by Arghyadip Das.

Sundararajan Kidambi also did well to take half-a-point off Surya Shekhar Ganguly, the second seed. As did C.S. Gokhale, who drew with third seed Sandipan Chanda.

Executing the plan

Venkatesh, playing from the white side of a Ruy Lopez Steinitz, had a slight advantage after the opening, but not enough to press for anything more than a draw as the game reached an ending featuring rook, knight and equal number of pawns.

"The opening went according to my plan," said a delighted Venkatesh, who is rated more than 200 points below the top seed. Even after the unexpected result, Short had his sense of humour intact. "I didn't play well because I was distraught by the way England bowled today in the Brisbane Test," he said. "I like to watch Kevin Pieterson play, but not with the leather in his hand."

He added that his opponent across the chessboard played well. "He got enough moves right," said Short.

Abhijeet also got it right against Meenakshi, who played Slav Defence. White launched a powerful attack on the king-side and went an exchange up on the 28th move; three moves later, Meenakshi gave up.

Important results (fourth round, Indians unless specified): M.R Venkatesh 3.5 drew with Nigel Short (Eng) 3.5; Surya Shekhar Ganguly 3.5 drew with Sundararajan Kidambi 3.5; Tejas Bakre 3.5 drew with Praveen Thipsay 3.5; Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury 3.5 drew with Neelotpal Das 3.5; Abhijeet Gupta 4 bt S. Meenakshi 3; J. Deepan Chakravarthy 3 drew with C. Praveen Kumar 3.5; C.S. Gokhale 3 drew with Sandipan Chanda 3; D. Harika 3.5 bt Abhijit Kunte 2.5; Dibyendu Barua 3 drew with Himanshu Sharma 3; Niaz Murshed (Ban) 2.5 lost to Arghyadip Das 3.5; N. Sudhakar Babu 3 drew with Akshayraj Kore 3; S. Arun Prasad 3 drew with Sai Srinivas 3; P. Karthikeyan 3.5 bt S. Vijayalakshmi 2.5; G.N. Gopal 3 drew with Shashikant Kutwal 3; Ziaur Rahman (Ban) 2.5 drew with M.R. Lalith Babu 2.5; R.B. Ramesh 3 bt Anup Deshmukh 2; Nisha Mohota 3 bt K. Ratnakaran 2; Saptarshi Roy 2.5 drew with Arjun Tiwari 2.5; O.T. Anil Kumar 2.5 drew with S. Satyapragyan 2.5; G.B. Prakash 2.5 drew with Prasanna Rao 2.5; R. Ashwath 2.5 drew with Sriram Jha 2.5; G. Rohit 3 bt Bhagyashree Thipsay 2;.Swati Ghate 3 bt Swapnil Dhopade 2; Akshat Khamparia 3 bt Vikramaditya Kamble 2; Prathamesh Mokal 3 bt C.S. Unni 2.

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