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Chess
Perfect outing for Vijayalakshmi, Swati
By Rakesh Rao
Surya Sekhar Ganguly (left) who achieved his second GM-norm congratulates Chandrashekhar Gokhale on becoming India's 29th IM after the 11th round at the National `A' chess championship at Nagpur on Sunday. - Photo: R.V. Moorthy
NAGPUR, JAN. 27. Sunday turned out to be a perfect day at work for S. Vijayalakshmi and Swati Ghate.
Vijayalakshmi seems to have reserved her best against some of the big names in her maiden National `A' chess championship here. After taking care of two former champions, GM Pravin Thipsay and P. Konguvel, Vijayalakshmi scalped ex-holder Abhijit Kunte in the 11th round here.
Even as Vijayalakshmi salvaged some pride following a second career-victory over the Grandmaster, her roommate Swati, too, gave a sparkling performance with white pieces and got the better of International Master Varughese Koshy.
Both women capitalised on a pawn-gain in the middle- game but carved out victories in different ways. Vijayalakshmi took time to enlarge her advantage in an ending involving rooks and pawns. Kunte, in a lost position, blundered another pawn and resigned on the 73rd move. In contrast, Swati nailed Koshy with a savage attack and forced her bearded rival to resign in 55 moves.
On a day when defending champion Dibyendu Barua needed some luck to defeat childhood-mate Neeraj Kumar Mishra and rejoin P. Hari Krishna in the lead with 8.5 points, Surya Sekhar Ganguly made his second Grandmaster-norm and Chandrashekhar Gokhale completed the norm-formalities to become an International Master.
Hari fought all the way against an experienced N. Sudhakar Babu before settling for a 53-move draw. Much earlier, Barua had punished an erratic Mishra without much difficulty at the stroke of the first time-control.
Ganguly, needing nothing less than win against B.T. Muralidharan, was made to struggle. Once Ganguly lost the double- bishop advantage, the game looked like heading for a draw. But Muralikrishnan mishandled the position and crashed to his seventh defeat, in 44 moves. Gokhale played out a safe 33-move draw with P. Konguvel and easily fulfilled the requirements to become an International Master.
The results (11th round): Swati Ghate (4.5) bt Varughese Koshy (3); Surya Sekhar Ganguly (8) bt B.T. Muralikrishnan (2.5); N. Sudhakar Babu (5.5) drew with P. Hari Krishna (8.5); P. Magesh Chandran (5) lost to V. Saravanan (6.5); K. Sasikiran (8) bt Sriram Jha (7); S. Vijayalakshmi (4) bt Abhijit Kunte (6); Dibyendu Barua (8.5) bt Neeraj Kumar Mishra (4); Chandrashekhar Gokhale (6.5) drew with P. Konguvel (4.5); D.V. Prasad (4) drew with Pravin Thipsay (4.5); R.B. Ramesh (5) bt Vishal Sareen (5).
12th round pairings: Koshy-Sareen; Thipsay-Ramesh; Konguvel-Prasad; Mishra-Gokhale; Kunte-Barua; Jha-Vijayalakshmi; Saravanan-Sasikiran; Hari-Magesh; Muralikrishnan-Babu and Swati-Ganguly.
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