The Hindu : Ramesh nails Hari

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Feb 24, 2002

Sport

Sport - Chess

Ramesh nails Hari
By Rakesh Rao

IM R.B. Ramesh (left) looks on as GM P. Harikrishna ponders over his next move in the sixth round of the Asian chess championship in Bikaner on Saturday. - Photo: R.V. Moorthy.

BIKANER, FEB. 23. P. Hari Krishna was extremely fortunate to escape with a draw against young sensation Somak Palit in the afternoon. But he was not so lucky against GM-norm hunter R.B. Ramesh.

Precisely 20 days after spoiling Hari's chances of winning the National `A' champoinship at Nagpur, Ramesh repeated the bitter dose on the teenager and caught up with K. Sasikiran at five points after six rounds of the Asian Open chess championship at the Laxmi Niwas Palace here on Saturday.

Sasikiran, solid as ever, drew with Uzbek GM Tahir Vakhidov after having become the sole leader following his fifth- round victory over other Uzbek GM, Marat Dzhumaev. However, by the end of the day, Ramesh made sure that Sasikiran had company at the top.

Ramesh, fresh from making it to the National team after some heavy scoring in the second half of the National championship, is now firmly back in contention for GM-norm. This well-crafted victory over Hari should stand him in good stead in rounds to follow.

Hari ran into Ramesh's home preparation and struggled all the way of this Sicilian Pelican game lasting 49 moves. In

fact from Ramesh's point of view, it was a prepared line until 27 moves by which time he had forced Hari to give up a rook for knight and pawn. On the 29th move, Ramesh declined Hari's draw- offer. Hari did control the centre better but Ramesh gradually tightened the grip by smashing his rival pawn-structure on the kingside.

After the exchange of queens, both players tried to promote a pawn each with a bid to bring back their queens on the board. But there was no respite for Hari. His knight was trapped before being forced to give up his rook for Ramesh's queening pawn. Though Hari looked in a hopeless position by the 40th move, he hung on for nine more moves before accepting the inevitable.

In the morning, after Ramesh had scored over Saheli Dhar-Barua, Hari was plain lucky to elude the grasp on an all- conquering Palit in a marathon lasting 61 moves. In fact, it was Palit's lack of experience that saved Hari and not any brilliant recovery-plan. With time running out in the fourth hour, the Kolkata-youngster chose to go for a rook-and-pawn ending without being aware that it was actually a theoretically drawn position.

After having missed a big win, an understandably despondent Palit could not get his act together in the afternoon against Dzhumaev and blundered his way to a 17-move defeat. Still, with four points from six matches, including four against GMs, Palit is still in contention for a GM-norm. Even if he slows down in days to come, a maiden International Master norm should be his for the asking.

Dibyendu Barua, Palit's fourth-round victim, recovered following a lucky-victory over Prathmesh Mokal in the morning and easily defeated 12-year-old Abhijeet Gupta to reach four points.

D.V. Prasad's chase for a GM-norm suffered further setbacks. After failing to make the most of his chances against top seed Utut Adianto and settling for a draw, Prasad failed to upset the drawing plans of Roktim Bandopadhyay. So far, Bandopadhayay seems content on spliting points and staying in contention for an IM-norm.

The results (Indians unless stated): Sixth round: K. Sasikiran (5) drew with Tahir Vakhidov (Uzb) (4.5); R.B. Ramesh (5) bt P. Hari Krishna (4); Somak Palit (4) lost to Marat Dzhumaev (Uzb) (4.5); Dibyendu Barua (4.5) bt Abhijit Gupta (3.5); Tejas Bakre (4) drew with Abhijit Kunte (4); Roktim Banopadhyaya (4) drew with D. V. Prasad (3.5); Utut Adianto (Indo) (4) bt Sriram Jha (3); Ehsan Ghaem Maghami (Ira) (4) bt G. Rohit (3); P. Magesh Chandran (4) bt Saheli Dhar-Barua (3); J. Deepan Chakravarty (3) lost to Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury (4); Rahul Shetty (3.5) bt K. Ratnakaran (3); Harika Dronavalli (3) drew with Prathmesh Mokal (3); Vedant Goswami (3.5) bt D. Muthu Priyadarshana (Sri) (2.5); C. Delphin (2.5) lost to S. Poobesh Anand (3.5); Ahmed Minhazuddin (Ban) (2.5) lost to Deepsen Gupta (3.5); G. N. Gopal (2.5) lost to Nisha Mohota (3); Y. Pratibha (2) lost to Aarthie Ramaswamy (3); S. Nabeela Farheen (3) bt C. J. Arvind (2); Himanshu Sharma (3) bt Esha Karvade (2); K. Narayanan (2.5) drew with Mohammad Arif (2.5); P. D. S. Girinath (2.5) bt H. Nilavoli (2); Swati Ghate (2.5) bt Himanshu Kumar (1.5); Thushari Mahawaththa (Sri) (1.5) lost to J. E. Kavitha (2.5); Shashikant Kutwal (2.5) bt Abhyudaya Rajpurohit (1); Shamima Aktherliza (Ban) (2) bt Usha Upadhayaya (1); Manjula V. James (1.5) drew with Sophia V. James (1).

Fifth round: Marat lost to Sasikiran; Hari drew with Palit; Rohit lost to Vakhidov; Saheli lost to Ramesh; Abhijit Gupta drew with Bandopadhyay; Prasad drew with Adianto; Mokal lost to Barua; Kunte bt Harika; Muthu lost to Bakre; Jha bt Delphin; Arif lost to Maghami; Esha lost to Magesh Chandran; Chowdhury bt Pratibha; Ratnakaran bt Nabeela; Nilavoli lost to Chakravarty; Gopal drew with Goswami; Poobesh Anand drew with Minhazuddin; Deepsen Gupta bt Girinath; Shetty bt Kutwal; Aarthie drew with Himanshu Sharma; Kavitha lost to Arvind; Nisha bt Manjula; Narayanan bt Usha; Himanshu Kumar drew with Thushari; Rajpurohit lost to Swati; Sophia lost to Shamima.

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