The Hindu : Sport / Chess : Good win for Kunte

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Good win for Kunte

Arvind Aaron

Chennai: Second seed and former two-time champion, Abhijit Kunte of Indian Oil, Pune moved closer to the top after he defeated former National under-25 champion Swayangsu Satyapragyan of Orissa with a king side attack in the seventh round of the Velammal National ‘A’ chess championship here on Saturday.

Veteran Grandmaster Dibyendu Barua of Kolkata ended Sudhakar Babu’s brilliant run in the event by defeating him in a bishop ending to join Kunte in the second place on five points.

Overnight leader, Surya Shekhar Ganguly posted a 25-move draw against M.R. Venkatesh to move from one point lead to half-a-point lead with 5.5 points.

GM Gopal sacrificed a knight on the 18th turn but drew by repetition of moves when he realised that he could only perpetually check the black king of Chennai’s Adhiban.

Undefeated M.S. Thejkumar of Mysore is on a dream run having drawn his fifth Grandmaster so far. Tejas Bakre offered a draw on the ninth move itself and Thejkumar who sat behind white pieces took it.

Asian junior champion Karthikeyan had a chance to offer better resistance but on the 34th move the Tamil Nadu youngster allowed Grandmaster Neelotpal Das to walk his king into enemy territory and register a 54-move win.

National sub-junior champion Sethuraman of Velammal School, Chennai equalised with the black pieces on the 21st turn and drew without sweat against the more experienced Arun Prasad of Salem.

Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury of Kolkata improved his health and came to play after ceding a walkover on Friday. He also improved his position to an extent that Deepan Chakkravarthy had to sacrifice a rook and get a draw by perpetual checks.

Ramesh loses

Only one Grandmaster lost in this round. International Master Ratnakaran of Kozhikode used his passed queen bishop pawn well enough to promote and defeat Grandmaster Ramesh in a queen and rook ending. Ramesh’s little tactic on the king side went in vain.

Important results (round seven): S.S. Ganguly 5.5 drew with M.R. Venkatesh 4.5, A. Kunte 5 bt S. Satyapragyan 4, G.N. Gopal 4.5 drew with B. Adhiban 4.5, D. Barua 5 bt Sudhakar Babu 4, M.S. Thejkumar 4.5 drew with Tejas Bakre 4.5, Arun Prasad 4 drew with S.P. Sethuraman 4.5, Suvrajit Saha 4 drew with Parimarjan Negi 4, S.R. Chowdhury 4 drew with Deepan Chakkravarthy 4, K. Ratnakaran 4 bt R.B. Ramesh 3.5, Neelotpal Das 3.5 bt P. Karthikeyan 2.5, Nisha Mohota 3 drew with P.M. Thipsay 3.

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