Sasikiran, Thipsay sound a warning

By Raghunandan Gokhale

MUMBAI, MAY 30. The race for the few seats in the Indian team for the Istanbul Olympiad hotted up with a large number of decisive games in the 13th round of the Reliance Industries-sponsored 37th National A chess championship, organised by the Maharashtra Chess Association here today.

Though front-runners GM Abhijit Kunte (10) and GM Dibyendu Barua (8.5) were held to draws, two other GMs Sasikiran (8.5) and Pravin Thipsay (7) sounded a warning by returning to winning ways.

Pravin Thipsay's dazzling queen sacrifice was the main attraction of the day which witnessed many tough battles. G.B. Prakash's unbelievable blunder, involving a rook, against seasoned campaigner IM D.V. Prasad has almost sealed his fate in the championship. Similarly, Harikrishna's loss to the daredevil Ravi Hegde, who attacked relentlessly, ended his chances of getting into the Indian team.

The 23-year-old Abhijit Kunte found his Indian Oil teammate T.S. Ravi a tough nut to crack. Though the Pune-based GM enjoyed the advantage of white pieces and gained the upper hand initially, Ravi calmly repulsed the attacks and obtained an honourable draw after 47 moves of King's Indian Attack. With this result, Ravi has slipped into the top six with six rounds to go.

Nineteen-year-old GM Sasikiran is an angry young man after allowing IM V. Saravanan and GM Pravin Thipsay to slip through his fingers in the last two days. Today he came to the board determined to make amends. Sasikiran is among the top 10 juniors in the world according to the latest FIDE-rating list and celebrated the occasion with an emphatic and flawless win over the dashing Neelotpal Das.

Neelotpal opened with Nimzo Indian Defence and was mildly surprised to see Sasikiran avoiding the Capablanca variation. In the Rubinstein variation, Neelotpal missed 17)--Rc7 and played 17)--Nd5 instead. This slight inaccuracy put Sasikiran in the driver's seat. ``My 22)g3 gave me a winning advantage,'' claimed the World junior No. 8. Neelotpal, generally a good defensive player, channelled the game into a queen and pawn ending. ``Neelotpal had good fighting chances in the end but did not pursue it vigorously,'' said the winner after the game.

Incredible sacrifice

Seven-time National champion Pravin Thipsay has been having a tough time, particularly with regard to time. But today, the Union Bank officer seemed to have decided to play fast. He opened with his pet Kings Indian Defence and naturally expected Kidambi to come prepared with the Classical variation, Sasikiran's favourite weapon. Everything went on smoothly for Kidambi till the 17th move when Thipsay uncorked an unbelievable Queen sacrifice.

Kidambi gleefully accepted the booty only to realise that the Black Knights were too hot to handle. ``My 19th move was very difficult to find,'' said Thipsay, ``but once I played it, everything went like clockwork.''

Kidambi's queen was driven from pillar to post and when the black pieces forced a checkmate on the white king, the queen watched it helplessly from the sidelines. It was a good lesson from the Grandmaster for the upcoming Kidambi.

After going through a lean patch, particularly against the teenagers, Saravanan is slowly coming back into form. He played well against Sriram Jha's Trompovsky Attack and had a fighting position when Jha blundered a piece. This was Saravanan's second win on the trot.

Hegde humbles Harikrishna

The elder statesman of the National `A' championship met the youngest entrant in what was a remarkable game. Harikrishna found his 43-year-old opponent playing more energetically in the English Opening. Hegde launched a whirlwind offensive against the white king which the 14-year-old Harikrishna could not counter effectively, and soon found his kingside crawling with the black pieces. Hegde, who let go many chances against Ganguly on Monday, did not miss much today and won in a King and pawn ending.

Ganguly registered an easy win against an out-of-form Lanka Ravi in 41 moves of Caro Kann Defence. ``My bishop was too strong,'' remarked Ganguly after the game. The bishop forced Ravi to part with more than one pawn.

The results (13th round):

D.V. Prasad (BPCL) 7.5 beat G.B. Prakash (IB) 5; Dibyendu Barua (TISCO) 8.5 drew with Vishal Sareen (LIC) 5.5; Abhijit Kunte (IOC) 10 drew with T.S. Ravi (IOC) 7; Sandipan Chanda (GNCA) 6 drew with K. Murugan (NLC) 5.5; S.S. Ganguly (GNCA) 7 beat Lanka Ravi (ONGC) 4; P. Harikrishna (WIPRO) 5.5 lost to Ravi Hegde (UBI) 6; K. Sasikiran (ONGC) 8.5 beat Neelotpal Das (GNCA) 5; S. Kidambi (TN) 4.5 lost to Pravin Thipsay (UBI) 7; Shriram Jha (LIC) 4 lost to V. Saravanan (BPCL) 6.5 and Atanu Lahiri (LIC) 4 bye.

The moves: S. Kidambi (white) vs Pravin Thipsay (black): 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. Nf3 O-O 6. Be2 e5 7. Be3 Na6 8. O-O Ng4 9. Bg5 Qe8 10. dxe5 dxe5 11. h3 h6 12. Bd2 Nf6 13. Be3 Qe7 14. Nd5 Qd8 15. Qc1 Kh7 16. Rd1 Nxe4 17. Nb6 axb6 18. Rxd8 Rxd8 19. Qc2 Nec5 20. g4 Nb4 21. Qb1 Be6 22. Bxc5 bxc5 23. Qe4 Nc6 24. a3 f5 25. gxf5 Bxf5 26. Qe3 Nd4 27. Rd1 e4 28. Nh4 Bf6 29. Nxf5 gxf5 30. Bh5 Rg8+ 31. Kh1 Rg5 32. Be2 Rag8 33. b4 Be5 34. bxc5 Nxe2 35. Qxe2 Rg2. Kidambi resigned.

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