Sport
-
Chess
Sasikiran, Hari ahead
By Rakesh Rao
NAGPUR, FEB. 1. With K. Sasikiran, P. Hari Krishna and Dibyendu Barua virtually ensuring their places in the Indian Olympiad team, the battles for the other three berths are expected to be fiercely fought in the remaining three rounds of the BPCL National `A' chess championship here on Friday.
After 16 rounds, at least seven players, with Surya Sekhar Ganguly on top of the heap, have realistic chances of joining the three Grandmasters in the National squad. As a result, some very `calculated' moves, both on and off the board, are being anticipated from the aspirants.
Ganguly held Sasikiran and did a favour to Hari. This 38-move draw in Sicilian saw Sasikiran match Hari's tally of 12 points and enhanced Ganguly's aggregate to 10.5. A little earlier, Hari had devastated Chandrashekhar Gokhale in a 23-move blast. But Barua was far less merciless in collecting his allotted point from B. T. Muralikrishnan. The defending champion was half-a-point behind the leaders.
Abhijit Kunte brightened his chances of remaining in the top-six bracket with a victory over Vishal Sareen. Kunte overtook V. Saravanan and Sriram Jha on way to the fifth place with 9.5 points.
D. V. Prasad salvaged some pride after delivering a blow to Saravanan's chances. In Closed Sicilian, Prasad sacrificed a bishop, attacked relentlessly and grabbed a rook to gain the upper-hand. Thereafter, the players blundered by turns before Saravanan faltered one last time under time-pressure and resigned on the 40th move.
Unlike Prasad, R. B. Ramesh revived his chances by beating Jha in 50 moves. At eight points, Ramesh has the company of Gokhale and N. Sudhakar Babu.
Earlier, S. Vijayalakshmi maintained her domination of Swati Ghate in their Scotch game lasting 42 moves. As usual, the battle between these ladies, who are also roommates here, raised expectations. But in an anti-climax, Swati blundered a rook in time-pressure and made things much easier for her arch-rival.
lThe results (16th round): Varugeese Koshy (6) drew with P. Konguvel (6); Neeraj Kumar Mishra (4.5) lost to Pravin Thipsay (8); Abhijit Kunte (9.5) bt Vishal Sareen (7.5); Sriram Jha (8.5) lost to R. B. Ramesh (8); V. Saravanan (9) lost to D. V. Prasad (7.5); P. Hari Krishna (12) bt Chandrashekhar Gokhale (8); B. T. Muralikrishnan (2.5) lost to Dibyendu Barua (11.5); Swati Ghate (5.5) lost to S. Vijayalakshmi (7); Surya Sekhar Ganguly (10.5) drew with K. Sasikiran (12); N. Sudhakar Babu (8) drew with P. Magesh Chandran (7.5).
17th round pairings: Magesh-Koshy; Sasikiran-Babu; Vijayalakshmi-Ganguly; Barua-Swati; Gokhale- Muralikrishnan; Prasad-Hari; Ramesh-Saravanan; Sareen-Jha; Thipsay-Kunte and Konguvel-Mishra.
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Sport
|
