Sport - Chess

Arun Prasad holds Ganguly

Chennai: Arun Prasad of Bharat Petroleum, Salem grilled National champion Surya Shekhar Ganguly for long before letting him earn a draw in 76-moves in the 11th round game of the Velammal National ‘A’ chess championship here on Wednesday.

The above result allowed G.N. Gopal of Bharat Petroleum to win and join Ganguly in the lead with eight points from eleven games.

The third place is shared by five players: Arun Prasad, S.P. Sethuraman, M.R. Venkatesh, Abhijit Kunte and K. Ratnakaran.

Just two rounds remain to be played in this Rs. 4 lakhs prize fund event organised by the Tamil Nadu State Chess Association.

Kolkata Grandmaster Ganguly castled queen side with white but never got any attack going against the Sicilian defence of Arun Prasad.

The Salem player was aggressive on the queen side and won a pawn.

Entering a minor piece ending with an extra pawn, Arun Prasad was not able to use the extra material.

National sub-junior champion Sethuraman of Velammal School shocked fellow International Master Venkatesh, also of Chennai with a flow of tactics starting move 31 to win on the 35th move.

Both players now have seven points.

Kerala’s Grandmaster Gopal got the better of Ramesh. Gopal, the only undefeated player in this championship made full use of the rook for knight advantage in the Sicilian defence game from the black side in 30 moves.

Important results (round 11):

S.S. Ganguly 8 drew with Arun Prasad 7, S.P. Sethuraman 7 bt M.R. Venkatesh 7, R.B. Ramesh 5.5 lost to G.N. Gopal 8.

A. Kunte 7 drew with B. Adhiban 6, M.S. Thejkumar 6 lost to K. Ratnakaran 7, Tejas Bakre 6 drew with Parimarjan Negi 6.

Roktim Bandyopadyay 5.5 lost to D. Barua 6.5, P. Konguvel 5.5 lost to Neelotpal Das 6.5, S.R. Chowdhury 6 drew with Sudhakar Babu 6.

Saptarshi Roy 6 drew with Vidit Gujrathi 6, Nisha Mohota 5 lost to Deepan Chakkravarthy 6, P. Karthikeyan 4.5 lost to P.M. Thipsay 6.

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