Race for title hots up

By Our Sports Reporter

VIJAYAWADA, MARCH 12. Just half a point separates players placed in the first three positions after the penultimate round of the National youth (under-25) chess tournament conducted by Champions Chess Academy at the Andhra Gymkhana Clubhouse here on Sunday.

While favourite Dinesh Kumar Sharma retains lead with seven points, second-seed Syed Anwar Shazuli on 6 has fallen behind Manish Joshi, who has 6.5 points. Shazuli is joined by C. Natarajan, K. Gunasekharan, Pankaj Joshi, J. Ramakrishna and Banik Somnath, as the race hots up for the final assault on Monday.

Shazuli's setback was partly of his own making, in opting for Nd7 instead of the winning Qb1 on the 12th. Playing white, he began with queen pawn, made some irregular moves after which the game advanced to a Trompovsky opening.

Two minor pieces were exchanged but the game seemed to be drifting into uncertainty. Consequently, Shazuli agreed to split a point with Tamil Nadu's K. Gunasekharan. R.S. Prasanna's flawed 15th move, an Ne5, exposed his king to assault in a 49-move game of Torre attack. C. Natarajan, capitalising on the slip, unleashed a queen and bishop combination, against which Prasanna had to relinquish his rook and bishop. On the 37th turn, Prasanna gave up two minor pieces for his rival's rook. By the 49th, the game was up for Prasanna.

Andhra Pradesh's J. Ramakrishna put a halt to compatriot and Asia under-10 runner-up G. Rohit's felling of FIDE-rated players. Against Ramakrishna's king pawn opening, Rohit playing black, offered Sicilian defence.

By going in for a closed variation and sacrificing a pawn on the 16th, Ramakrishna complicated things for his young opponent. Rohit's 18th move, a Qd5 cost him dear in an exchange. Ramakrishna's a4 on the 25th enforced Rohit's resignation, owing to material loss.

lThe results (eighth round): Manish Joshi (M.P.) 6.5 drew with Dinesh Kumar Sharma (LIC) 7, Syed Anwar Shazuli (TN) 6 drew with K. Gunasekharan (TN) 6, C. Natarajan (TN) 6 bt R.S. Prasanna (TNCA) 5.5, Pankaj Joshi (Venus) 6 bt Malleswara Rao (AP) 5, J. Ramakrishna (AP) 6 bt G. Rohit (AP) 5, Banik Somnath (Ben) 6 bt Ganesh Bhatt R. (Ker) 4.5, Pradeep Pathak (UP) 4.5 lost to N. Raju (AP) 5.5, P. Srikanth (EmA) 4 lost to M. Srinivasa Rao (AP) 5, S. Raghavendra (Kar) 4 lost to Ch.K. Krishna (Rlys) 5, Pranjal Das (Ben) 5 bt Rahul Agarwal (Bih) 4, S.R. Misra (Ori) 5 bt T.L. Shaji (Ker) 4, P. Rajesh (TNCA) 5 bt D. Sai Srinivas (AP) 4, I. Amarnath (AP) 4 lost to Sk. Kasim (AP) 5, Dinesh Kumar G. (TN) 4.5 bt Basanta Singh (Mani) 4, M. Abhinav (AP) 4 drew with Keerthi Rana T. (AP) 4, S.S. Thakar (HP) 4.5 bt G.N. Gopal (Ker) 3.5, Ajay Pande (UP) 3.5 lost to Girija Kumar K. (AP) 4.5, S. Satyakam (Ori) 4 bt L.D. Rao (AFSCB) 3, T. Vennela (AP) 3 lost to Ch. Kavitha (AP) 4, K.S. Krishna (CAPA) 3.5 drew with K. Vedadri (AP) 3.5, N. Vinuthna (AP) 4 bt K.N. Kumar (EmA) 3, J. Karthik (CAPA) 4 bt Atul Pareek (Raj) 3, Mukesh Mandloi (Raj) 4 bt Devkaran Bhatti (Mah) 2.5, Gaurav Nangia (Mah) 3 drew with D. Harika (AP) 3, Mukesh Jain (Raj) 3.5 bt Inao Sharma (Mani) 2.5, Gururajan (AFSCB) 2.5 drew with Kranti Kiran (Chrom) 2.5, J.M. Reddy (Kar) 3 bt K.B. Chowdary (AP) 2, Sanjay Kumar S. (Chrom) 2 lost to P. Satyanarayana (AP) 3, Neeraj Sharma (Raj) 1.5 bt S. Praneeth (AP) 1.5.

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