The Hindu : Sport : Shyam Sundar stuns Deep

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Dec 20, 2007
ePaper

Sport

Sport

Shyam Sundar stuns Deep

Rakesh Rao

Mary Ann Gomes on the road to victory

Prasanna frustrated Parimarjan with passive play
Mary is one point ahead of nearest contender

MUMBAI: Vishnu Prasanna and P. Karthikeyan drew with fellow joint leaders top-ranked Parmarjan Negi and second seed Aswin Jayaram, but left the venue with contrasting feelings after a tense seventh round action in the Asian junior chess championship at the Goregaon Sports Club here on Wednesday.

Prasanna succeeded in frustrating Parimarjan with his passive play, got the draw he had come for in 34 moves and left the venue like a winner. Later, Karthikeyan rued missing a possible three-move checkmating combination against Aswin and, with it, a chance to be the sole leader.

By the time the dust settled, M. Shyam Sundar stunned fourth seed Deep Sengupta and joined the four overnight leaders at 5.5 points. So far, Vishnu has the best progressive score of 25.5 points, ahead of Karthikeyan (23), Parimarjan, Shyam (21 each) and Aswin (20.5).

However, there is no such excitement in the girls’ section. Runaway leader and defending champion Mary Ann Gomes moved closer to retaining the crown and completing her Woman Grandmaster title. Following six victories, this 18-year-old from Kolkata drew her first game of the competition against runner-up and second seed Kiran Manisha Mohanty in 37 moves to reach 6.5 points.

As things stand, Mary is one point ahead of the nearest contender Padmini Rout and needs a victory or two draws in the remaining two rounds to keep her crown. Even in case of a ‘tie’ after nine rounds, Mary will take the title due to superior progressive count.

“I was somewhat nervous before the round,” admitted Mary and went on, “In the world (under-18) in Turkey last month, I won the first six rounds but lost the next three. So after winning six games here, I did not want to lose,” revealed Mary. Mary now plays Pon N. Krithika who proved her superiority over S. Harini in 46 moves.

On the second board, Padmini overpowered a fighting P. Sivasankari in 62 moves of Sicilian Defence to move half-a-point ahead of third-placed Kiran.

Meanwhile, an off-form top seed Atousa Pourkashiyan of Iran lost to P. Uthra.

The results (Indians unless stated): Seventh round: Open: Parimarjan Negi (5.5) drew with Vishnu Prasanna (5.5); Aswin Jayaram (5.5) drew with P. Karthikeyan (5.5 ); Shyam Sundar (5.5) bt Deep Sengupta (4.5); S.P. Sethuraman (4) lost to Saravana Krishnan (5); Swapnil Dhopade (4.5) drew with B. Adhiban (4.5); M.R. Lalith Babu (4.5) drew with T. Purushothaman (4.5); K. Priyadarshan (5) bt Bitan Banerjee (4); S. Nitin (4) drew with Abhishek Das (4); Akshat Khamparia ( 4.5) bt Meghan Gupte (3.5); Aditya Udeshi (4.5) bt Sahaj Grover (3.5); Sayed Alavi (Iri) (4) bt Abhishek Kelkar (3); Debashis Das (3.5) drew with Nikhil Kamat (3.5); Y.D.B. Madugalle (Sri) (3) lost to Sagar Shah (4); Shreyans K. Shah ( 3.5) drew with Swayams Mishra (3.5); Aniruddha Deshpande (4) bt Santhosh Kumar (3) Kiranpal Singh Mahajan (3) lost to N. Surendran (4); Rakesh Kulkarni (3.5) bt Snehal Bhosale (3); Lekh Mithawala (2.5) lost to Atishay Ajmera ( 3.5); Vishwesh Kochrekar (2.5) lost to Aziz Sharify (Afg) (3.5); Aditya Nargundkar (2) lost to Shiven Khosla (3).

Girls: Kiran Manisha Mohanty (5) drew with Mary Ann Gomes (6.5); Padmini Rout (5.5) bt P. Sivasankari (4); Soumya Swaminathan (4) drew with P. Priya (4); Pon N Krithika (4) bt S. Harini (3); Atousa Pourkashiyan (Iri) (3) lost to P. Uthra (4); Shamima Akter (Ban) (4) bt Y.G. Sriharika ( 2.5); Tara Rahimi (2.5) drew with Mohana Priya (3); Bhakti Juikar (1.5) lost to Kruttika Nadig (3.5); Sonakshi Rathore (0.5) lost to Mitali Patil (3).

Leading eighth-round pairings: Open: Aswin-Parimarjan; Vishnu-Shyam; Karthikeyan-Priyadarshan; Saravana-Aditya; Deep-Akshat; Girls: Mary-Krithika; Priya-Padmini; Sivasankari-Kiran; Uthra-Soumya; Shamima-Kruttika.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport