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Ravi in lead

By Our Sports Reporter

KOZHIKODE AUG. 17. Scoring his fourth win in as many games, T.S. Ravi of Indian Oil moved into the sole lead in the Air Travel Trohpy FIDE rating all-India chess tournament at Taj Residency on Saturday.

After the fifth round, he has 4.5 points, half-a-point ahead of the top seed International Master Rahul Shetty of Indian Airlines. Another Indian Airlines player, G.B. Joshi, has 3.5 points.

The upset of the day — of the tournament so far in fact — was authored by 13-year-old G.N. Gopal, who overcame K. Ratnakaran, the third seed and a former Asian junior bronze medallist. Shetty was held to a draw by M.B. Muraleedharn of Kerala.

Ravi, with black pieces, made good use of some lapses in the opening from Sayantan Dutta of Bengal in a Spanish Game. With considerable help from White, the second seed opened up the centre, following a pawn-exchange on the 17th move. He won a pawn on the king-side nine moves later with strong tactics. He forced his young rival to resign after 36 moves with a mating attack with his queen and knihgt.

In the morning, he punished Gopal for his oversight — the latter blindly sacrificed a piece and was doomed — in a Sicilian Alapin variation. Interestingly, the half-a-point that Ravi dropped here was against his wife, Saimeera, who notched up her first win, getting the better of Purabi Sinha in the battle of the ladies.

Ratnakaran began with his pet French Defence and soon had a huge advantage in time. When the end came, he had actually a lead of an hour. But it looked as if he was under time pressure and not Gopal, the 2001 National under-12 rapid champion.

Ratnakaran went for an unwise pawn-exchange on the king-side that allowed his rival to effect a double rook sacrifice. Black resigned immediately, on the 35th move.

Shetty admitted he was lucky to get a draw from Muraleedharan, who played well to arrive at a stronger position in their game played from Ruy Lopez. The Kerala veteran, with white pieces, was better placed in the middle game, with his ominous looking knight pair.

Black's bishop was much less threatening, but on the 32nd move he came up with a pawn push on the queen-side and created counter play. He had a passer to answer the strong-king attack of Muraleedharan. They signed the peace treaty three moves later.

In the other games, Argyadip Das of Bengal defeated Parimarjan Negi of Delhi in 32 moves of Sicilian Rossolimo, while Joshi and K. Lakshminarayanan of Kerala drew after 52 moves of Pirc Defence.

The results:

Fifth round: M.B. Muraleedharan (Ker) 2 drew with Rahul Shetty (IA) 4; Purabi Sinha (Asm) 1 lost to Saimeera Ravi (IB) 1.5; G.N. Gopal 3 bt K. Ratnakaran (Tal) 3; Sayantan Dutaa (Ben) 1 lost to T.S. Ravi (IO) 4.5; Argyadip Das (Ben) 2 bt Parimarjan Negi (Del) 2; G.B. Joshi (IA) 3.5 drew with K. Lakshminarayanan (Ker) 1.5.

Fourth round: Shetty bt Joshi; Lakshminarayanan lost to Das; Negi lost to Dutta; Ravi bt Gopal; Ratnakaran bt Purabi; Saimeera lost to Muraleedharan.

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