Ratnakaran shocks Neelotpal

By P.K. Ajith Kumar

TIRUR, SEPT. 20. Fortunes in rapid chess can change swifter than Pakistan's equations with Afghanistan. Neelotpal Das would vouch for that.

On Thursday the 19-year-old International Master (IM) from the Goodricke National Chess Academy, Kolkata, one of India's brighter prospects in the game, was looking well set for a win in the second round of the eighth National rapid chess championship for the Kainikkara Mammi Memorial Trophy at the serene Thunchan Memorial Research Centre when he blundered a pawn.

Soon, the fourth-seed was staring at defeat, as his rival, K. Ratnakaran, Keralas best player at the moment, recorded the biggest upset of the opening day.

A little earlier, on the adjacent board, G.B. Joshi of Indian Airlines had shocked the fifth seed P. Konguvel of Petroleum Sports Control Board (PSCB). There were two other major surprises in round two, as rapid chess lived up to its reputation. Seventh seed S. Satyapragyan of Indian Airlines was beaten by Goas T.S. Venkitaraman and former champion Varughese Koshy of PSCB lost to S. Mariarul of Chromepet Chess Academy, Chennai. If that wasn't enough, R.S. Gupta of Chattisgarh held the second seed and former Asian rapid champion Lanka Ravi of PSCB was held to a draw.

It was thus left to Tejas Bakre of Indian Airlines to prove that the seedings weren't a joke really. He did that in fine fashion, winning both his games today, against Ram S. Krishnan of Tamil Nadu and Ravi Kumar of Chattisgarh. He was particularly pleased with his second round win against Ravi. Playing from the white side of a Sicilian Taimanov, Bakre, still recovering from a severe attack of Hepatitis, brought his rival to the brink of a mate, with enough time left on the clock. His pieces were working like a team, a pretty good one at that, and they wreaked havoc on the king-side.

Asian junior bronze medallist Ratnakaran, with white pieces, was quick to take advantage of a series of poor moves by Neelotpal in the middle game, arising from a Sicilian Dragon, after he himself had blundered a centre pawn. Black, however, returned the compliment with interest, and squandered a five- minute lead on the clock. He was four pawns down, when the end came.

Joshi, 37 and a successful coach in Delhi, was impressive with black pieces in the Ruy Lopez game. I deliberately played a different line from our last meeting three years ago, he said. He converted his positional advantage to victory by rolling his pawns in the centre and was a piece up, with more in the offing, when White gave up.

Lanka Ravi, who adopted French Defence, was understandably disappointed after he failed to win a knight ending, despite possessing a passed pawn at the beginning of the end-game. Venkitaraman, more of an amateur these days, was delighted after making good use of an overambitious Satyapragyan in a Ruy Lopez Breyer variation. So was Mariarul who got the better of Koshy, playing on the black side of an English Opening, with a neat combination.

The results:

Second round: Tejas Bakre (IA) 2 bt Ravi Kumar (Cha) 1; R.S. Gupta (Cha) 1.5 drew with Lanka Ravi 1.5; K. Ratnakaran (Ker) 2 bt Neelotpal Das (GNCA) 1; P. Konguvel (PSCB) 1 lost to G.B. Joshi (IA) 2; R.R. Laxman (TN) 1 lost to T.S. Ravi (PSCB) 2; S. Satyapragyan (IA) 1 lost to T.S. Venkitaraman (Goa) 2; Alex Thomas (Ker) 1 lost to Jayant Gokhale (PSCB) 2; Varughese Koshy (PSCB) 1 lost to S. Mariarul (Chromepet) 2; Yogesh Gore (Cha) 1 lost to M.R. Venkatesh (Capa Chess Academy, Chennai) 2; Ebenezer Joseph (Emanuel Chess Centre, Chennai) 1 lost to Rahul Shetty (IA) 2; N. Sudhakar Babu (IB) 1.5 bt Santosh Kumar Sinha (Bih) 1; C.S. Gokhale (IA) 0.5 lost to S. Satyakam (Ori) 1.5; Praful Mehta (Guj) 1 bt A.K. Patnakar (Goa) 0.5; Sanjay Ramadas (Goa) 0 lost to Ram S. Krishnan 1 (TN); Karun Duggal (Del) 1 bt Abhash Kumar (NLM, Bihar) 0; George K. Samuel (Ker) 0 lost to Dinesh Kumar (T Nagar Chess Academy, Chennai) 1; E.P. Nirmal (Ker) 1 bt Moseen Moneer (J & K) 0; Jowner Rasheed (J & K) 0 lost to Kandi Ravi (AP) 1; F.A. Asfaq (Chennai Chess Academy) 0 lost to V. Hari Balu (CCA) 1; K. Darsan (Ker) 0 lost to K. Abhimod (Ker) 1; Aswin Shroff (Guj) 0 lost to P.A. Mohammed Favas (Ker) 1; Rohit A. Kadam (Goa) 1 bt M. Karthika (Ker) 0; P.A. Fajra (Ker) 0 lost to Sabu Jacob (Ker) 1.

First round: Ram lost to Bakre; Lanka Ravi bt Praful Mehta; Satyakam drew with Babu; Neelotpal bt Duggal; Dinesh lost to Konguvel; T.S. Ravi bt Nirmal; Kandi Ravi lost to Satyapragyan; Jayant Gokhale bt Asfaq; Abhimod lost to Koshy; Venkatesh bt Shroff; Patnakar drew with C.S. Gokhale; Shetty bt Kadam; Sabu lost to Gupta; Ravi Kumar bt Sanjay; Abhash lost to Ratnakaran; Joshi bt George; Moseen lost to Laxman; Venkitaraman bt Rasheed; Hari lost to Alex; Mariarul bt Darsan; Favas lost to Gore; Sinha bt Fajra; Karthika lost to Ebenezer.

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