Ramesh emerges a worthy champion

By Rakesh Rao

JALANDHAR, JUNE 14. Pulling off victories almost at will before settling for a draw, International Master R.B. Ramesh emerged a worthy champion of the LML-sponsored seventh National rapid chess championship at the MGN Public School here on Wednesday. The 24- year-old Ramesh, an officer with Indian Oil, was never required to draw from his reserves in the preceding rounds and it was no different on the final day. The top-seed dismissed Santosh Kumar Sinha and Manoj Mishra to ensure the first prize of Rs. 22,000 and the glittering trophy with a round to spare in the 11-round competition. With a cushion of 1.5 points, Ramesh accepted a nine-move draw against Kiran Panditrao in the final round to finish with 10 points.

Dinesh Kumar Sharma escaped to victory against Varughese Koshy on the second board to be runner-up with nine points. The 23-year- old Dinesh, the reigning National under-25 champion from Life Insurance Corporation, needed just half a point from the final round to take the second prize of Rs. 16,000. But his draw offer was rejected by Koshy early in the match. Koshy was better off for most part of this thriller but Dinesh's ability to think of some exciting traps in the dying moments saw Koshy lose a rook and get check-mated.

There was a three-way tie for the third place but after the progressive score was taken, Suvarjit Saha (Railways), Yogesh Gore (MP) and Panditrao (Central Revenue) finished in that order after garnering eight points each. On board three, Saha and Gore were involved in a fierce battle which eventually ended with honours even.

Final standings (with points, progressive score, prize-money): 1. R.B. Ramesh (10 points, 61.5, Rs. 22,000); 2. Dinesh Kumar Sharma (9, 54, Rs. 16,000); 3. Suvarjit Saha (8, 54, Rs. 11,000); 4. Yogesh Gore (8, 51.5 Rs. 8,000); 5. Kiran Panditrao (8, 47, Rs. 6,000); 6. N. Sudhakar Babu (7.5, 50.5, Rs. 4,500); 7. Varughese Koshy (7.5, 48, Rs. 3,500); 8. Vishal Sareen (7.5, 46, Rs. 3,000); 9. S. Satyapragyan (7.5, 43.5, Rs. 2,000); 10. Manoj Mishra (7.5, 43, Rs. 1,000).

The results:

Final round: Kiran Panditrao (CR) 8 drew with R.B. Ramesh (PSCB) 10; Dinesh Kumar Sharma (LIC) 9 bt Verghese Koshy (PSCB) 7.5; Yogesh Gore (MP) 8 drew with Suvarjit Saha (Rlys) 8; N. Sudhakar Babu (IB) 7.5 drew with Vishal Sareen (LIC) 7.5; Chandrashekhar Gokhale (IA) 7 drew with S. Satyapragyan (IA) 7.5; Manoj Mishra (MP) 7.5 bt R.R. Laxman (TN) 6.5; Laltu Chatterjee (Rlys) 7 drew with Sashikant Kutwal (Mah) 7; Santosh Sinha (NCA) 7 drew with P. Konguvel (PSCB) 6.5; Sriram Jha (LIC) 7 bt Vedant Goswami (Raj) 6; Rashmin Pulekar (Mah) 6 lost to Shankar Roy (Rlys) 7; B.T. Muralikrishna (Rlys) 7 bt Y.P. Srivastava (Bih) 6; G. B. Joshi (IA) 7 bt Manish Joshi (MP) 6; A. Shankar (TN) 6 lost to Hari Om Sharma (UP) 7; Vinod K. Bhagwat (CR) 7 bt Ashwani Tiwari (Pun) 5.5; Vikas Sharma (Pun) 6.5 bt Sunil Rangarajan (Kar) 5.5; K.K. Nath (Ori) 5.5 lost to Sushant Banerjee (Mah) 6.5; Rajesh Diwan (MP) 5.5 lost to Milind Gawade (Ben) 6.5; Krishan Soni (Har) 5.5 drew with Rahul Shetty (IA) 5.5; Kanwarjit Singh (Pun) 5.5 drew with Rajesh Kumar (Bih) 5.5; K.K. Sharma (Pun) 6 bt S. Mari Arul (TN) 5; Ebenezer Joseph (P&T Audit) 6 bt Sandeep Chitkara (Har) 4.

10th round: Ramesh (9.5) bt Manoj Mishra (6.5); Saha (7.5) drew with Dinesh Sharma (8); Koshy (7.5) bt Santosh Sinha (6.5); Kutwal (6.5) lost to Panditrao (7.5); Roy (6) lost to Gore (7.5); Sareen (7) bt Muralikrishna (6); Babu (7) bt Joshi (6); Satyapragyan (7) bt Shankar (6); Vikas Sharma (5.5) lost to Gokhale (6.5); Laxman (6.5) bt Diwan (5.5); Banerjee (5.5) lost to Chatterjee (6.5); Konguvel (6) bt Gunashekhar (5); Rajesh Kumar (5) lost to Jha (6); Hari Om Sharma (6) bt Parikh (5); Goswami (6) bt Sudhir Kumar Sinha (5).

Ninth round: Santosh Sinha (6.5) lost to Ramesh (8.5); Dinesh Sharma (7.5) bt Kutwal (6.5); Shankar (6) lost to Saha (7); Panditrao (6.5) drew with Sareen (6); Manoj Mishra (6) bt Gokhale (5.5); Koshy (6.5) bt Laxman (5.5); Gore (6.5) bt Banerjee (5.5); Joshi (6) bt Konguvel (5); Jha (5) lost to Muralikrishna (6); Bhagwat (5) lost to Roy (6); Vinod Sharma (5) lost to Babu (6); Gunashekhar (5) lost to Satyapragyan (6); Chatterjee (5.5) bt Goswami (5); Diwan (5.5) bt Ashwani Tiwari (4.5); Pulekar (5) drew with Manish Joshi (5).

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Sport
Previous : Aparna's ban period ends
Next     : China to host inaugural World Cup