Thumping wins for Siddharth, Karthik

By Raghunandan Gokhale

MUMBAI, DEC. 12. R. Siddharth (Capa Chess Academy, Chennai) and Karthik Viswanathan (Maharashtra) joined overnight leaders M.R. Venkatesh (4.5) and R.S. Prasanna (4.5) with thumping victories in the fifth round of the National sub-junior chess championship at the Andheri Sports Complex here on Tuesday.

In the girls section Eesha Karvade (4.5) of Maharashtra and Anuradha Beniwal (4.5) of Haryana maintained their tiny lead when R. Mahima (4) of Tamil Nadu failed to convert her extra pawn into a full point against the top seeded Baisakhi Das (3.5) in a Pelikan variation of Sicilian Defence.

Underdog Prasanna rose to the occasion against the top seeded Venkatesh by employing a new move in a Closed Sicilian Defence. ``His 10)Bf4 was surprising,'' admitted Venkatesh who had to change his active plans and go for a successful defence in a long ending. After 51 moves, Prasanna realised that his Queenside majority was unproductive and decided to sign the peace treaty.

This draw allowed Karthik to join the duo in joint lead. Karthik broke through the center and handed over a 31-move loss to Vaibhav Saxena (3) who played a highly optimistic attacking move on the queen-side in a Kings Indian Defence. Siddharth was equally emphatic against Ranvir Bhatti in a Scandinavian Defence.

However, second seeded Deepan Chakravorty (4) of Tamil Nadu failed to go up when Saptarishi Roy's defence held his position together.

Anuradha got herself into early trouble against the fancied Eesha from the black side of a Sicilian Paulsen. ``I completely overlooked Eesha's 12) Bg5,'' confessed Anuradha after the game. ``Yes, I had the advantage,'' agreed Eesha, ``but I failed to augment it.'' The game was agreed drawn after 38 moves.

The best game was produced by former World under-12 girls bronze medallist Tania Sachdev. She carved out a beautiful win from a tiny advantage in a Closed Sicilian against H. Nila Voli (3).

lImportant results (fifth round): boys: R.S. Prasanna (TN) 4.5 drew with M.R. Venkatesh (TN) 4.5, D. Chakravorty (TN) 4 drew with Saptarshi Roy (GNCA) 4, R. Siddharth (Capa) 4.5 bt Ranvir Bhatti (Chhattisgarh) 3.5, Karthik Viswanathan (Mah) 4.5 bt Vaibhav Saxena (Mah) 3, Somak Palit (GNCA) 3 lost to Arjun Tiwari (Mah) 4, Arghyadeep Das (GNCA) 4 bt Ayan Lahiri (WB) 3, S. Poobesh Anand (TN) 4 bt Aditya Vora (Mah) 3, M.K. Narsimhan (Capa) 3 lost to Sayantam Dutta (GNCA) 4, Yashpal Singh (Chhattisgarh) 4 bt P. Maheshwaran (TN) 3, Abhijit Gupta (Raj) 3 drew with Yashodhan Gogte (Mah) 3.5, Praveen Prasad (AP) 3.5 bt Praveen Kumar (TN) 2.5, Sameer Thakkar (VCA) 2.5 lost to S. Mujumdar (Mah) 3.5, Sohan Phadke (AICF) 2.5 lost to G. Rohit (AP) 3.5.

Girls: Eesha Karvade (Mah) 4.5 drew with Anuradha Beniwal (Har) 4.5, Baisakhi Das (WB) 3.5 drew with R. Mahima (TN) 4, H. Neela Voli (TN) 3 lost to Tania Sachdev (Del) 4, C. Delphin (TN) 3.5 drew with S. Soumya (Mah) 3.5, M. Rajdarshini (EMM) 3 lost to Amruta Mokal (Mah) 4, Saloni Balgi (Mah) 3 lost to Kruttika Nadig (Mah) 4, Vrushali Kulkarni (Mah) 3 lost to M. Priyadarshini (TN) 4, Aditi Vira (Mah) 2.5 lost to P.N. Harini (Capa) 3.5, Sneha Ghatpande (Mah) 2.5 lost to Supriya Majee (WB) 3.5.

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