Satyapragyan triumphs

By Our Sports Reporter

BANGALORE, DEC. 31. The top seed, Satyapragyan, opted for the path of least resistance and quickly settled for a draw to ensure safe-keeping of the National under-25 chess title. With just the opening moves completed Satyapragyan and Saurabh Kherdekar settled for a draw thereby shutting out any chance of an upset in deciding the title.

The match was hardly five moves into the game when they settled for an agreed draw. The winner pocketed a cheque for Rs. 10,000 along with the trophy. Satyapragyan now heads for Hyderabad to participate in the Global Trust Bank Trophy commencing from January 2.

On the second board, Pankaj Joshi, playing white, upstaged R.R. Laxman in just 31 moves. Laxman once again exhibited lack of consistency and tumbled into defeat. He preferred to play the Old Indian Defence and his troubles started on the 11th move. Laxman played Nf8 and this opened up control for Pankaj Joshi on the e5 square.

Launching his attack Joshi found another tactical mistake made by Laxman to his advantage. A simplifying combination move 13th made by Laxman allowed Joshi greater leverage and by the 34th move Laxman was forced out of the game. However, despite the loss Laxman held on to the second place with a better progressive score. Laxman received Rs. 6,000 for his runner-up slot.

The third board was somewhat similar to the top board. Rajesh, playing against Shivananda of Karnataka, opted to play the Maroczy bind. Hardly had the game reached 16 moves when both players accepted to share the point.

On the fourth board, Ratnakaran defeated last year's runner-up Manish Joshi in 45 moves. Manish played the French defence closed variation and from an equal position faltered on the 28th move playing Na6 instead of the better Nd3 move. This put Ratnakaran in a stronger position. A further pawn gain after which Ratnakaran created a passed pawn on a6. By this time the fate of the match was sealed and Joshi resigned on the 45th move.

There were two marathon matches, on the fifth and the sixth boards. After taking the match to almost the full limits players on both the boards decided to settle for draws. Preetham, who was in an earlier round involved in a protracted game with Satyapragyan, played an irregular opening against Akash Thakur. Queens were exchanged on the 20th move and Preetham gained a double bishop advantage going into the end game. He also sacrificed a pawn on the 40th move but could not force a win. The game was called off on the 75th move. Capt V.V.K. Mani, regional manager, The Hindu along with Dr. Prabha Jagota, director, National Tuberculosis Institute, gave away the prizes.

The top ten placings (according to progressive scores): 1. Sathyapragyan (7.5); 2. R.R. Laxman (6.5); 3. Saurabh Kherdekar (6.5); 4. Ratnakaran (6.5); 5. Pankaj Joshi (6.5); 6. Preetham Sharma (6); 7. Akash Thakur (6); 8. P. Rajesh (6); 9. B.S. Sivananda (6); 10. Manish Joshi (5.5).

The results (final round): Saurabh Kherdekar drew with Satyapragyan; Pankaj Joshi bt R.R. Laxman; P. Rajesh drew with B.S. Shivananda; Ratnakaran bt Manish Joshi; Preetam Sharma drew with Akash Thakur; K.G. Apoorva drew with A.K. Pande; Lakshminarayan drew with N. Pramod; Sunil George drew with Ramprakash; Tej Kumar bt M. Suraj; Satyajeet lost to Ramakrishna.

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