The Hindu : Sport : Himanshu stuns Ramesh

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Dec 20, 2006
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Sport

Himanshu stuns Ramesh

Rakesh Rao

VALSAD: With more than half the number of encounters producing well-contested draws, Grandmaster Dibyendu Barua and former Asian Junior champion S. Arun Prasad found themselves in the lead after posting second-round victories over eager debutants in the Atul National `A' chess championship here.

On a day when Grandmasters R.B. Ramesh and Tejas Bakre tossed away promising positions to lose, ninth seeded Barua, a three-time champion, overpowered Valay Parikh in 50 moves of French Defence while Arun's controlled aggression made Sudhir Sinha err when short of time.

14 share second spot

Following the two leaders were 14 players on 1.5 points. This brigade included National `B' runner-up Himanshu Sharma who punished Ramesh for two successive blunders. In this Sicilian Classical game, Ramesh seized the initiative by trading his queen for a rook, a bishop and a pawn.

However, the Grandmaster overlooked the potential of Himanshu's pieces to attack and soon lost a rook for a knight. In the ensuing endgame, Himanshu came out stronger in 74 moves.

Tejas loses again

For the second successive day, Tejas ended up on the losing side. Unlike his crushing defeat in the opener, Gujarat's lone GM shot himself on the foot while pressing for victory over Prathamesh Mokal.

Tejas took too long to plan the knockout punch, ran out of his thinking time and was declared lost. This brutal blow pushed Tejas to the last board in the third round where he faces B.T. Muralikrishnan.

On a day none among the top eight seeds could win, Woman Grandmaster D. Harika drew with favourite Surya Shekhar Ganguly, second seed Abhijit Kunte and P. Konguvel, both former champions, signed peace, as did third ranked Diwakar Prasad Singh with T.S. Ravi.

Like Harika, who drew with GM Neelotpal Das on Monday, the other two WGMs Swati Ghate and Eesha Karavade also maintained their unbeaten run. Two rounds are scheduled for Wednesday.

The results (second round): Deepan Chakkravarthy (1.5) drew with K. Ratnakaran (1.5); Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury (1.5) drew with Pravin Thipsay (1.5); Abhijeet Gupta (1.5) drew with P. Konguvel (1.5); Valay Parikh (1) lost to Dibyendu Barua (2); M.R. Venkatesh (1.5) drew with Roktim Bandyopadhyay (1.5); Swati Ghate (1.5) drew with S. Kidambi (1.5); Sudhir Sinha (1) lost to S. Arun Prasad (2); D. Harika (1) drew with Surya Shekhar Ganguly (1); Abhijit Kunte (1) drew with Suvrajit Saha (1); R.B. Ramesh (0.5) lost to Himanshu Sharma (1.5); G. Rohit (0.5) lost to Neelotpal Das (1.5); Deep Sengupta (1.5) bt Abhishek Das (0.5); Syed Anwar Shazuli (0.5) lost to S. Poobesh Anand (1.5); Lanka Ravi (1) drew with Sudhakar Babu (1); G.B. Prakash (1) drew with M.S. Thej Kumar (1); Eesha Karavade (1) drew with G.N. Gopal (1); T.S. Ravi (0.5) drew with Diwakar Prasad Singh (0.5); Tejas Bakre (0) lost to Prathamesh Mokal (1); Varugeese Koshy (0.5) drew with V. Saravanan (0.5); B.T. Muralikrishnan (0) lost to R.R. Laxman (1); Ashwin Jayaram (0.5) drew with Vikramaditya Kamble (0.5); P.D.S. Girinath (0) lost to Swapnil Dhopade (1); Somak Palit (1) bye.

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