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Chess
Barua tastes defeat at Konguvel's hands
By Rakesh Rao
P. Konguvel scrutinises the board after surprising Dibyendu Barua in the National `A' chess championship at Nagpur on Saturday. - Photo: R.V. Moorthy
NAGPUR, JAN. 26. P. Konguvel's long wait for victory ended with Dibyendu Barua's first defeat and left P. Hari Krishna ahead after the 10th round of the BPCL National `A' chess championship here on Saturday.
The action-filled day also saw K. Sasikiran come up with some superb defensive tactics to notch a rare victory over fellow-Grandmaster Abhijit Kunte. Chandrasekhar Gokhale, following a draw with Pravin Thipsay, moved within a game of getting his International Master title-norm. S. Vijayalakshmi and Swati Ghate ended up as losers after Hari and Surya Sekhar Ganguly played out a friendly 11-move draw. Hari, the only unbeaten player in the fray, now leads with eight points.
By sheer coincidence, it was the 10th-round draw against Barua last year that helped Konguvel earn his maiden GM- norm. On this day too, Konguvel had reasons to be delighted after overpowering a previously-unbeaten Barua.
Konguvel needed 41 moves to force the issue in a Sicilian Defence game. A knight-sacrifice, for three pawns, by Konguvel, coupled with Barua's passive bishop proved decisive in the eventual analysis. The king-side offensive by Konguvel, followed by a sound consolidation process, did not leave Barua with many options. Two connected advanced pawns proved too hot for Barua to handle and he gave up soon after the first time- control.
Sasikiran also faced a knight-sacrifice for three queen-side pawns by Kunte and came under tremendous pressure. But his air-tight defence pulled him out of trouble. Sasikiran turned down a draw-offer on the 25th move and played brilliantly to avenge the loss suffered last month at Kozhikode. Though Kunte enjoys a better head-to-head score against Sasikiran, the last four encounters have seen them win alternate matches with the latter playing white on each occasion.
lThe results (10th round): Varughese Koshy (3) drew with R.B. Ramesh (4); Vishal Sareen (5) bt D.V. Prasad (3.5); Pravin Thipsay (4) drew with Chandrashekhar Gokhale (6); P. Konguvel (4) bt Dibyendu Barua (7.5); Neeraj Kumar Mishra (4) bt S. Vijayalakshmi (3); Abhijit Kunte (6) lost to K. Sasikiran (7); Sriram Jha (6.5) drew with P. Magesh Chandran (5); V. Saravanan (5.5) drew with N. Sudhakar Babu (5); P. Hari Krishna (8) drew with Surya Sekhar Ganguly (7); B.T. Muralikrishnan (2.5) bt Swati Ghate (3.5).
11th round pairings: Swati-Koshy; Ganguly-Muralikrishan; Babu-Hari; Magesh-Saravanan; Sasikiran- Jha; Vijayalakshmi-Kunte; Barua-Mishra; Gokhale-Konguvel; Prasad- Thipsay; Ramesh-Sareen.
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