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Chess
Laxman in fine nick
By Raghunandan Gokhale
THANE, DEC. 7. R.R. Laxman (6) of Tamil Nadu, on his comeback trail after a long layoff from the National scene, shot into the lead with a string of victories in the Rochess International rating chess tournament being played here today. Laxman defeated N. Balaji in the fifth round and followed it with a shocking win over former National B champion R. Balasubramanium in the sixth round.
Three youngsters Ramkrishna Kashelkar, Sushant Bannerjee (both Maharashtra) and P. Pravin Prasad (AP) are in the second spot with 5.5 points. In the fifth round earlier, FIDE Master Sajandas Joshi was shocked by Nagpur schoolboy Pratik Sriwas in French Defence.
Laxman opted for the Tarrasch Defence and got active pieces in lieu of a weak pawn structure. The Chennai youngster made use of his isolated pawn cleverly and came up with a strong passed pawn in the center which won the day for him against Balasubramanium (ICF) in 46 moves.
Sushant Bannerjee was pleasantly surprised to find internationally rated Chaitanya Vaidya handing over the control of the center to him on a platter. Young Sushant brought his army together and broke through Chaitanya's defences to score a smooth win in 27 moves of Queens Gambit.
Former National A player Vinayak Ghate (4.5) made a similar mistake of neglecting the center and paid dearly as young Kashelkar went on the rampage winning pawns at will from the black side of the French Defence. Ghate surrendered after 32 moves.
Teenager Pravin Prasad overcame giant-killer Pratik Sriwas's resistance in 48 moves of English Opening. Former National A Player N. Neelakantan (4) suffered a shocking defeat in the hands of Andhra youngster T. Pursottam (5) in Tarrasch Defence.
Manoj Mishra, the Madhya Pradesh champion scored over Rohil Bhat and remained in contention. Aditya Pattnaik (Orissa) shocked former British under-12 girls champion Ketaki Kulkarni (Maharashtra) in the Slav Defence.
Important results:
Fifth round: R.R. Laxman (5) bt N. Balaji (4); P. Pravin Prasad (4.5) drew with R. Kashelkar (4.5); Y. Aidasani (4) drew with V.N. Ghate (4); D. Devendra Kumar (3.5) lost to R. Balasubramanium (4.5); Chaitanya Vaidya (4.5) bt T.S. Venkatramanan (3.5); Pratik Sriwas (4.5) bt S.G. Joshi (3.5); Yogesh Mapari (3.5) lost to Sushant Bannerjee (4.5).
Sixth round: R. Balasubramanium (4.5) lost to R.R. Laxman (6); S. Bannerjee (5.5) bt Chaitanya Vaidya (4.5); V.N. Ghate (4.5) lost to R. Kashelkar (5.5); Pratik Sriwas (4.5) lost to P. Pravin Prasad (5.5); N. Balaji (4) lost to Rahul Shetty (5); Ashish Thatte (4.5) drew with IM Arun Vaidya (4.5); Y. Aidasani (4) lost to V. Kamble (5); T. Pursottam (5) beat N. Neelakantan (4); Rohil Bhat (4) lost to Manoj Mishra (5); D. Ravishankar (5) bt Prasad Deshmukh (4).
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