Atanu gets the better of Balasubramanium

JAMSHEDPUR, OCT. 15. International Master Neelotpal Das of Goodricke Chess Academy outplayed teammate Sandipan Chanda to consolidate his position at the top with 6 points after the sixth round of the 38th National `B' chess championship here today.

IM Atanu Lahiri (West Bengal) remained on the heels of the leader with 5.5 points in his kitty.

Lahiri is followed by a pack of eight players - Double GM norm holder G.B. Prakash, IM Sudhakar Babu, K.V. Shantharam, IM Tejas Bakre, K. Murugan, triple IM norm holder Vishal Sareen, Gurpreet Pal Singh and M.R. Venkatesh - on five points each.

Neelotpal was in top form if his today's game was any indication. Playing with the white pieces he employed the Kings Indian attack to counter the Sicilian defence of Sandipan and got the game transposed to one of the favourable positions of Kings Indian defence with colours reversed.

In the ensuing middle game Sandipan appeared at sea and allowed the thematic central breakthrough that gave a lasting advantage to Neelotpal.

Giving a perfect display of his ever-increasing positional sense, Neelotpal sacrificed an exchange for just one pawn and penetrated Sandipan's kingside decisively to end the game in just 32 moves.

Riding high on his luck, Atanu Lahiri got the better of R. Balasubramanium (railways) in a Queens gambit declined game.

With white pieces Atanu got a slightly better position in his favourite exchange variation but Balasubramanium equalised comfortably after routine exchange of pieces.

As the game entered queen and minor piece endgame, Atanu was pushed to the wall thanks to the menacingly placed bishop of Balasubramanium and a queen-side pawn preponderance.

Resourceful as Atanu is, he came up with a spectacular mating web and caught his opponent unawares and a dejected Balasubramanium called it a day.

The results (sixth round): Neelotpal Das (6) beat Sandipan Chanda (4.5); A. Lahiri (5.5) bt R. Balasubramanium (4.5); K. Murugan (5) drew with T. Bakre (5); S.C. Sahu (4.5) lost to G.B. Prakash (5); L. Chatterjee (4.5) drew with P. Konguvel (4.5); N.S. Babu (5) bt S. Kherdekar (4); M.R. Venkatesh (5) bt S. Saha (4); P. Mithrakanth (4) lost to K.V. Shantharam (5); Surinder Kumar (4.5) drew with Shankar Roy (4.5); V.S. Negi (4.5) drew with N. Sanjay (4.5); G.P. Singh (5) bt R.P. Sharma (4); A.K. Medda (4) lost to V. Sareen (5); M.S. Thej Kumar (4.5) bt R.B. Ramesh (3.5); V. Kamble (3.5) lost to Sriram Jha (4.5).

- PTI

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