Date:02/11/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/11/02/stories/2006110207502200.htm

Sport - Chess

Lanka Ravi, Tania fall

PUNE: Top seed and National champion Surya Shekhar Ganguly bounced back thrice from deficit and eventually nailed National `B' winner Lanka Ravi 4-3 to move into the quarterfinals of the inaugural Poona Club knock-out rapid chess tournament at the Poona Club here on Wednesday.

Lanka Ravi seemed on the threshold of causing the biggest upset of the competition until he lost on time in the second five-minute blitz encounter, to let Ganguly draw level at 3-3. In the seventh game, Ganguly survived several anxious moments to checkmate the veteran ONGC campaigner.

Like Lanka Ravi, Woman Grandmaster Tania Sachdev, too, was gallant in defeat. Facing Grandmaster Pravin Thipsay, Tania pulled off two unexpected victories before falling in the five-minute blitz games.

The results:

Pre-quarterfinals: Surya Shekhar Ganguly bt Lanka Ravi 4-3; M.R. Venkatesh bt V. Saravanan 2.5-1.5; R.B. Ramesh bt S. Kidambi 1.5-0.5; Pravin Thipsay bt Tania Sachdev 4-2; K. Ratnakaran bt Deepan Chakravarthy 2.5-1.5; Tejas Bakre bt Abhijeet Gupta 2-0; Dibyendu Barua bt Akshayraj Kore 1.5-0.5; Abhijit Kunte bt G.N. Gopal 2.5-1.5.

Quarterfinal line-up: Ganguly-Venkatesh; Ramesh-Thipsay; Ratnakaran-Bakre; Barua-Kunte.