The Hindu : Sport / Chess : Ganguly scores a decisive win

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Sport - Chess

Ganguly scores a decisive win

Arvind Aaron

Ganguly leads by one point
R.B. Ramesh defeated Suvrajit Saha

Chennai: In what appeared to be a title-deciding top table game, the top seed Surya Shekhar Ganguly of Kolkata was at his combinative best when he defeated his Indian Oil teammate and second seed Abhijit Kunte of Pune in the eighth round game of the Velammal National ‘A’ chess championship here on Sunday.

Enhances lead

Ganguly enhanced his lead from half a point to one point as both Kunte and Dibyendu Barua who were on his heels were defeated. Ganguly is on 6.5 points from eight rounds.

In the second place are Grandmaster G.N. Gopal of Kerala, S.P. Sethuraman of Chennai and M.S. Thejkumar of Mysore on 5.5 points. Five rounds remain to be played.

Crushing win

National sub-junior champion and International Master Sethuraman scored a crushing win against Grandmaster Tejas Bakre. “It was my opening preparation until move 17,” said the tenth standard student.

Sethuraman’s quick win came in 27 moves with the white pieces when Bakre had not even moved either of his rooks. The Chennai player went aggressive and chased the black king around before registering a win.

In a Sicilian Paulsen opening, Ganguly as white sacrificed a bishop to open up black’s king side. Later he added fire by sacrificing a rook and won in 41 moves.

Ganguly was at his best against this Sicilian formation and is now better placed to win the title for the fifth time.

In another equally good game, Gopal exploited Barua’s centralised king in the French defence to win in 37 moves and move up the latter. He has the best chance to challenge Ganguly in this event.

Winning through a lengthy clean combination, Commonwealth champion R.B. Ramesh of Chennai bounced back defeating Suvrajit Saha of Kolkata to reach 4.5 points.

Important results (round eight): S.S. Ganguly 6.5 bt A. Kunte 5, G.N. Gopal 5.5 bt D. Barua 5, S.P. Sethuraman 5.5 bt Tejas Bakre 4.5.

B. Adhiban 4.5 lost to M.S. Thejkumar 5.5, S.R. Chowdhury 4.5 drew with M.R. Venkatesh 5; P. Negi 4.5 drew with Saptarshi Roy 4.5, Deepan Chakkravarthy 4.5 drew with Roktim Bandyopadyay 4.5.

S. Satyapragyan 4 lost to K. Ratnakaran 5, Sudhakar Babu 4.5 drew with Arun Prasad 4.5.

R.B. Ramesh 4.5 bt Suvrajit Saha 3.5, P.S. Mokal 3.5 lost to Neelotpal Das 4.5; Sriram Jha 4 drew with P. Konguvel 4, P.M. Thipsay 4 bt Akshat Khamparia 3, Vishnu Prasanna 3 lost to Nisha Mohota 4.

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