Konguvel gains maiden GM norm

By Rakesh Rao

NEW DELHI, JUNE 8. The waiting period for P. Konguvel and K. Sasikiran is finally over. Konguvel gained the maiden GM norm and Sasikiran, a revenge over his long-time nemesis Abhijit Kunte.

On a day when Konguvel and Sasikiran solved their respective puzzles and seemed pleased with life, it was business as usual for an inspired S. Vijayalakshmi in the National `A' chess championship at the CDCS Eventspecific office hall here.

After Konguvel's friendly draw with Kunte in the eighth round on Wednesday, it was not difficult to guess his possible course to the GM norm. As expected, it took two more short draws today to clear Konguvel's path.

If it was V. Saravanan who agreed for a quick draw with Konguvel in the ninth round this morning, Grandmaster Dibyendu Barua did likewise in the afternoon. As a result, Konguvel, who became an International Master on winning the National title in 1995, made the norm he sought since then.

For the record, Konguvel reached 7.5 points from 10 rounds to meet the norm-requirements of scoring a minimum of 73 per cent and facing three Grandmasters on the way. Konguvel, who turns 28 this August, also became the first ever to make a GM norm in the National championship.

``Honestly, I did not expect it,'' said Konguvel soon after making the norm. ``My confidence level was low before coming here since I did not have any great results to show in the past year or so. I came here with an aim to finish in the top- eight. But this has been a tremendous break,'' was how the Chennai-based Assistant Executive Engineer with Oil and National Gas Corporation (ONGC) put it.

Konguvel, an Electronic and Communication Engineer from Anna University, now aims to score six points from his remaining eight rounds in an attempt to enlarge his present norm to an 18-game one. The rules stipulate that to get a Grandmaster's title, a player should have norms totalling 24 games (if one of the norms is from a round-robin tournament) or 30 games (in case all norms are from Swiss league format).

Before Konguvel achieved what he narrowly missed in the Polish town of Koszalin in 1998, Sasikiran's self-belief had hit a new high. Sasikiran's poor 1-7 head-to-head record against Abhijit Kunte has surprised many for long. But today, in this battle of Grandmasters, Sasikiran punished Kunte for a dubious knight-move and went on to score a rare victory. On his part, Kunte did try to come back into this Carokann match by sacrificing a rook for bishop but it did not help.

In the evening, Sasikiran enhanced his lead over Konguvel to one point by dismissing tailender Saravanan. This was also Sasikiran's fourth straight victory.

Vijayalakshmi in superb form

If Sasikiran is destroying his rivals in the men's section, S. Vijayalakshmi continues to be to ruthless with her hapless opponents. Today, it was the turn of Dolan Champa Bose to be outplayed by the four-time champion in their Pirc Defence game. When Dolan lost on time after failing to make the 40th move within the allotted 90 minutes, Vijayalakshmi was in an overwhelming position in the once-equal rook-and-pawn ending.

After S. Meenakshi dismissed M.R. Sangeetha to stay one point behind elder sister Vijayalakshmi, it was Swati Ghate who notched an important victory over Y. Pratibha. At one stage, Swati looked in trouble when she was down a pawn but in time- trouble, Pratibha faltered and lost a bishop. In the end-game, Swati came out stronger.

In another interesting battle, Anupama Gokhale's experience proved too much for second seed R. Aarthie. Pallavi Shah posted a much-needed victory at the expense of Saimeera Ravi while Nisha Mohota dumped Saheli Dhar-Barua. Also notable was unrated Harika Dronavalli's draw with an off-colour Bhagyashree Thipsay in the match between the youngest and the oldest participant in the fray.

* The results:

Men: Tenth round: Neeraj Kumar Mishra (2321) 6 drew with G.B. Prakash (2453) 3.5; Atanu Lahiri (2391) 5.5 drew with Sriram Jha (2390) 2.5; P. Konguvel (2383) 7.5 drew with Dibyendu Barua (2494) 6; K. Sasikiran (2611) 8.5 bt V. Saravanan (2428) 1.5; Neelotpal Das (2423) 2.5 lost to Abhijit Kunte (2568) 6.5; Shekhar Sahu (2325) 5 drew with Pravin Thipsay (2453) 4; K. Murugan (2390) 3 drew with Saptarishi Roy (2306) 3.5; P. Harikrishna (2504) 5 drew with Surya Shekhar Ganguly (2456) 6.5; Nassir Wajih (2371) 2 drew with Lanka Ravi (2381) 5; D.V. Prasad (2440) 5.5 bye.

Ninth round: Ravi bt Harikrishna; Ganguly bt K. Murugan; Roy drew with Sahu; Thipsay drew with Das; Kunte lost to Sasikiran; Saravanan drew with Konguvel; Barua drew with Lahiri; Jha lost to Mishra; Prakash lost to Prasad; Wajih bye.

Women: Sixth round: Harika Dronavalli 3 drew with Bhagyashree Thipsay (2241) 2.5; Nisha Mohota (2257) 3 bt Saheli Dhar Barua (2224) 2; S. Meenakshi (2248) 4.5 bt Sangeetha M.R. (2009) 2; Pallavi Shah (2164) 2 bt Saimeera Ravi (2162) 2.5; Anupama Gokhale (2249) 4 bt Aarthie Ramaswamy (2291) 3; Y. Pratibha (2069) 2 lost to Swati Ghate (2271) 4; Dolan Champa Bose (2187) 2 lost to S. Vijayalakshmi (2424) 5.5.

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