VALSAD: In a fascinating battle between the exuberance of youth and the experience of the not-so-young, Madurai-lad Deepan Chakkravarthy came out stronger against Pravin Thipsay and joined two others in the lead in the Atul National `A' chess championship on Saturday.

Much before Thipsay lost, the other overnight leader Surya Shekhar Ganguly drew in seven moves with his Indian Oil colleague Abhijit Kunte to reach five points. Dibyendu Barua overpowered Lanka Ravi to be with Ganguly and Deepan after seven rounds of this 13-round competition.

Deepan turned down a draw-offer on the 17th-move of the Ruy Lopez Chigorin game and soon targeted a queenside pawn with success to hold the edge. With the 47-year-old Thipsay under time pressure, Deepan promptly shifted his attack from the queenside to kingside, gained another pawn and won in 47 moves.

No fireworks

Veterans Barua and Lanka Ravi did not produce any great fireworks. Barua seized the initiative in the Sicilian Classical game and a struggling Ravi had to give up his rook for a bishop and a pawn to stay alive longer. But Barua did not stretch Ravi's agony and finished the job in 34 moves. Another notable winner of the day was Suvrajit Saha who stopped former champion P. Konguvel in 40 moves of Sicilian Najdorf. After Konguvel faltered on the 19th move, Saha captured a pawn on the 23rd turn. Konguvel tried to complicate matters and sacrificed a knight for two pawns. Saha defended well and then pressed home the advantage.

The results (Seventh round): Surya Shekhar Ganguly (5) drew with Abhijit Kunte (4.5); Deepan Chakkravarthy (5) bt Pravin Thipsay (4.5); G.N. Gopal (4.5) drew with Diwakar Prasad Singh (4.5); Dibyendu Barua (5) bt Lanka Ravi (4); S. Arun Prasad (4.5) drew with M.R. Venkatesh (4.5); Abhijeet Gupta (4) drew with G. Rohit (4); Somak Palit (4) drew with Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury (4); Valay Parikh (3.5) lost to K. Ratnakaran (4.5); P. Konguvel (3.5) lost to Suvrajit Saha (4.5); Deep Sengupta (3.5) drew with D. Harika (4); P.D.S. Girinath (3.5) drew with R.B. Ramesh (3.5); Neelotpal Das (4) bt Poobesh Anand (3); S. Kidambi (3.5) drew with Vikramaditya Kamble (3.5); Himanshu Sharma (3) lost to Tejas Bakre (4); Prathamesh Mokal (3.5) drew with Swati Ghate (3); T.S. Ravi (3.5) bt G.B. Prakash (2.5); Eesha Karavade (3) drew with V. Saravanan (3); N. Sudhakar Babu (3) drew with B.T. Murali Krishnan (3); Swapnil Dhopade (2.5) lost to Ashwin Jayaram (3.5); Varugeese Koshy (2.5) drew with M.S. Thej Kumar (2.5); Roktim Bandyopadhyay (2.5) drew with Abhishek Das (2); Syed Anwar Shazuli (2.5) bye.

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