Sport
-
Chess
Hari Krishna, Barua lose; Sasikiran closer to glory
By Rakesh Rao
R.B. Ramesh (seated), who checkmated Hari Krishna, analysing his game with S.S. Ganguly, a victor over Dibyendu Barua, at the end of the 18th and penultimate round of the National `A' chess tournament in Nagpur on Sunday. - Photo: R.V. Moorthy
NAGPUR, FEB. 3. R.B. Ramesh's sensational checkmate of P. Hari Krishna and Surya Sekhar Ganguly's extremely fortuitous victory over Dibyendu Barua left K. Sasikiran with the best chance of winning the BPCL National `A' chess championship here.
On Sunday, Sasikiran may have missed the winning line in his drawn encounter against P. Magesh Chandran but his route to the title-triumph looks pretty clear now. After the 18th and penultimate round, the top seed has an aggregate of 13.5 - half- point clear of the overnight joint-leader Hari and one more than the third-placed Ganguly.
Barua (12 points) and Abhijit Kunte (10.5) are through to the elite top-six bracket. One among V. Saravanan (10), Ramesh, Sriram Jha (9.5 each), Pravin Thipsay and N. Sudhakar Babu (9.5 each) will fill the last available slot of the six- member Indian Olympiad team on Monday.
Much before Sasikiran walked out with a draw in the day's longest match, Ramesh accounted for Hari with surprising ease. Hari was reduced to `wood-pushing' for the best part of this 42-move match in Carokann. To come out a cramped position, Hari sacrificed a pawn on the 25th move but it did not really help.
A little later, Hari gave up two minor pieces for a rook and pawn. But on the 33rd move, Hari had to give up an immobile rook. Instead of resigning immediately, Hari played on for another nine moves and found himself checkmated.
In sharp contrast to a dominating Ramesh, Ganguly was plain lucky to avenge the loss suffered to Barua in the last edition of the championship. Barua, after declining a draw-offer and winning two pawns, had raised visions of overwhelming Ganguly but the time-pressure cracked him.
In his hurry to complete the 40 moves, Barua accepted a knight-sacrifice. It did not take Barua long to realise that he had walked straight into a simple two-move, two-way checkmating combination and resigned in disgust. The result saw Ganguly displace Barua from the third place.
Babu scored over S. Vijayalakshmi to give himself an outside chance of finishing in the top-six. Jha and Thipsay drew to keep alive their chances. Saravanan, too, stayed afloat following a draw with Vishal Sareen. However, Chandrashekhar Gokhale fell out of contention after losing to Swati Ghate.
Former champion and double GM-norm holder D.V. Prasad's cup of woes overflowed today after being crushed in just 25 moves by last-man B.T. Muralikrishnan in a sensational finish. Sacrificing a rook and a minor piece, Muralikrishnan brought Prasad's king marching out in the open and threatened checkmate by pushing a pawn.
A helpless Prasad gave up to give Muralikrishnan only his second win of the championship.
The results (18th round): Varugeese Koshy (7) drew with Neeraj Kumar Mishra (5.5); Abhijit Kunte (10.5) drew with P. Konguvel (7); Sriram Jha (9.5) drew with Pravin Thipsay (9); V. Saravanan (10) drew with Vishal Sareen (8.5); P. Hari Krishna (13) lost to R. B. Ramesh (9.5); B. T. Muralikrishnan (4) bt D.V. Prasad (7.5); Swati Ghate (7) bt Chandrashekhar Gokhale (8.5); Surya Sekhar Ganguly (12.5) bt Dibyendu Barua (12); N. Sudhakar Babu (9) bt S. Vijayalakshmi (7); P. Magesh Chandran (8.5) drew with K. Sasikiran (13.5).
Final round pairings: Sasikiran-Koshy; Vijayalakshmi-Magesh; Barua-Babu; Gokhale-Ganguly; Prasad-Swati; Ramesh-Muralikrishnan; Sareen-Hari; Thipsay-Saravanan; Konguvel- Jha and Mishra-Kunte.
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Sport
|
