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Chess
By Our Sports Reporter
Abhijith Kunte flashes the victory sign after claiming the National rapid chess championship in Bangalore on Thursday.
At the conclusion of the eleventh and final round in the championship's ninth edition, Kunte (9.5 pts) edged past overnight leader S.S. Ganguly (9). Abhijith's surge towards victory got easier after his ninth round triumph over Ganguly earlier in the morning. Ganguly undid his Sicilian Defence when he played his knight into d2 in the 11th move. Abhijith grabbed the initiative and with his bishops remaining strong, warded off Ganguly's attacks on the king's side. Eventually, Ganguly succumbed to time pressure and was checkmated. It was the beginning of a bad day for Ganguly who later drew with K. Ratnakaran and Prasad in the tenth and eleventh rounds. However Abhijith found the day perfect and defeated Aravind Shastri and R.R. Laxman in the subsequent rounds. "He (Ganguly) was very tense after getting eight out of eight overnight. And I had nothing to lose and I guess that helped. At last Bangalore turned lucky for me. I have lost here in my earlier tournaments,'' Abhijith said after defeating his Petroleum Sports Control Board colleague. Abhijith's path towards the winner's cheque of Rs. 30,000 had remained hazy until the eleventh round. Prior to the final round, Abhijith and Ganguly were level at 8.5 points. However with Ganguly having a better progressive score, Abhijith needed to win and simultaneously hope for the overnight leader to draw against Prasad. And when Prasad held Ganguly to a draw, Abhijith could not hide his grin amidst the bystanders. The day's surprise packet proved to be M.R. Venkatesh who defeated top-seed P. Hari Krishna in the tenth round. Venkatesh emerged third in the final standings with nine points after a lower progressive score pegged him below Ganguly. Venkatesh and Hari Krishna were equals in the Sicilian Pelican opening until the top-seed's 26th move of playing Ne7 backfired. The All India Chess Federation secretary P.T. Ummer Koya distributed the prizes. The organisers — C.V. Raman Chess Club — awarded the `most promising local player' award to Karnataka's R. Hanumantha. The final standings (top ten with progressive scores in brackets): 1. Abhijith Kunte (PSCB) 9.5 (53.0); 2. S.S. Ganguly (PSCB) 9 (61.5); 3. M.R. Venkatesh (TNCA) 9 (56.0); 4. Neelotpal Das (GNCA) 8 (44.0); 5. Devaki Prasad (PSCB) 7.5 (48.0); 6. G.B. Prakash (BSCB) 7.5 (46.5); 7. Sriram Jha (LIC) 7 (49.5); 8. S. Kidambi (TNCA) 7 (47.5); 9. P. Harikrishna (APCA) 7 (47.0); 10. K. Ratnakaran (Ker) 7 (45.5). The results (top ten boards): Eleventh round: S.S Ganguly (9) drew with Devaki Prasad (7.5), Abhijith Kunte (9.5) bt R.R. Laxman (7), M.R. Venkatesh (9) bt K. Ratnakaran (7), Sriram Jha (7) lost to Neelotpal Das (8), P. Hari Krishna (7) drew with Vivek Kumar Shukla (7), G.B. Prakash (7.5) bt R.B. Ramesh (6.5), Aravind Shastri (7) drew with T.S. Ravi (7), Sunderarajan Kidambi (7) bt Varugheese Koshy (6), N. Sudhakar Babu (6.5) drew with R. Sidharth (6.5), C.J. Aravind (6.5) drew with Roktim Bandopadyay (6.5). Tenth round: Ratnakaran drew with Ganguly, Shastri lost to Kunte, Venkatesh bt Hari Krishna, Prasad drew with Jha, Neelotpal bt Kidambi, Laxman bt Sudhakar Babu, Ramesh bt Yogesh Gore, Shukla bt Dinesh Kumar Sharma, Arghyadip Das lost to G.B. Prakash, Koshy drew with Satyapragyan. Ninth round: Ganguly lost to Kunte, Jha lost to Venkatesh, Kidambi drew with Shastri, Hari Krishna bt Rahul G. Shetty, Sharma lost to Ratnakaran, Gore lost to Prasad, Sudhakar Babu bt Aravind, Prakash drew with Koshy, Laxman bt Roktim, V. Saravanan lost to Neelotpal.
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