Date:09/12/2004 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2004/12/09/stories/2004120903291900.htm

Sport - Chess

Ganguly, Chanda back on top

By P.K. Ajith Kumar

VISAKHAPATNAM, DEC. 8. The close friends have shared many memorable moments as close friends. And on Wednesday, Surya Shekhar Ganguly and Sandipan Chanda found themselves sharing the lead after the sixth round of the 42nd National `A' chess championship.

The young Grandmasters from Kolkata moved back into the lead in some style by scoring splendid victories against strong opposition at the Waltair Club. Trailing half-a-point behind them are Sundarrajan Kidambi and Neelotpal Das.

Ganguly, the top seed and defending champion, was relentless in his attack against the sole overnight leader Kidambi, while Chanda came up with a beautiful sacrifice to outwit former champion Dibyendu Barua.

The day also saw Dronavalli Harika holding second seed Abhijit Kunte to a creditable draw and Roktim Bandyopadhyay taking half-a-point off Koneru Humpy.

Playing on the white side of an Advanced variation of French Defence, Chanda wasn't exactly pleased with his position after the opening. But an unwise pawn grab by Barua made him feel a lot better. Then on the 35th move, he surprised his older rival with a neat knight sacrifice to script a memorable victory.

Satisfying win

"Yes, it was a very satisfying win," said a delighted Chanda after the 50-move game. "I think Barua had no defence to my sacrifice".

Kidambi didn't expect Ganguly to play the Evans Gambit either. After all, he had played that opening only once before. But, then, the champion is on a mission here to unleash unexpected lines of openings on his unsuspecting rivals.

Ganguly had just one aim today — to nail Kidambi's king. So he gave a couple of pawns and built up a tremendous king-side attack, lining up his pieces nicely. Kidambi tried hard to defend, but gave up eventually on the 46th move.

"I'm very happy with this win," said Ganguly. "Not just because I didn't make any mistakes, but more because Kidambi didn't. But, yes, it was a risky line that I played. If my attack didn't work, I would've been in trouble".

Harika employed Neo-Grunfeld Defence and drew after 32 confident moves. "I had a small edge", said Kunte, "but it was too small to try out anything".

Humpy and Roktim signed the peace treaty after 59 moves from a Dutch Defence. They played on till reaching a rook-pawn ending.

"Because Humpy doesn't give short draws, you know", said Roktim, smiling. "But it was an interesting game in fact".

The results (sixth round): Abhijeet Gupta 1 lost to Tejas Bakre 3; Rahul Shetty 1 drew with Sriram Jha 2; Surya Shekhar Ganguly 4.5 bt Sundarrajan Kidambi 4; Neelotpal Das 4 drew with P. Konguvel 3.5; Sandipan Chanda 4.5 bt Dibyendu Barua 3.5; M.R. Venkatesh 3.5 drew with Deepan Chakravarthy 3; Koneru Humpy 2.5 drew with Roktim Bandyopadhyay 2.5; Abhijit Kunte 3 drew with Dronavalli Harika 1.5; Saptarshi Roy Choudhury 3 drew with Prathamesh Mokal 1.5; Suvrajit Saha 2.5 — bye.