Sport - Chess

Sriram Jha stops Kore to join Adhiban at the top

ZAMBAULIM (Goa): Finally, some of the veterans made their presence felt in the youth-dominated Monginis 46th National ‘B’ chess championship by carving out some clinical victories over younger rivals in the 10th round here.

Sriram Jha, a two-time champion known for his consistency in the domestic Swiss League events, stopped 20-year-old Akshayraj Kore to join overnight leader B. Adhiban in the lead at 8.5 points.

Country’s oldest Grandmaster at 49, Pravin Thipsay scored his second straight victory that ended in 16-year-old P. Shyam Nikhil’s third successive loss.

Thipsay, fortunate not to lose a minor piece after Nikhil missed a simple queen-move, was in the company of Parimarjan Negi and Saptarshi Roy jointly in the third spot at eight points. Roy handed out teenager M.R. Lalith Babu his first defeat of the competition.

As things stand, 15 players with 7.5 points share the sixth spot and are keeping alive their hopes of taking the 11 spots available for the next National ‘A’ championship.

Jha, who has played more than 80 rated games spread over nine tournaments in the last three months, did not show any signs of fatigue in snapping the unbeaten streak of Kore.

In the Ruy Lopez game, where the players reeled off 24 moves from theory, Kore offered a knight that Jha accepted three moves later. Having denied Kore any compensation for the knight, Jha later helped himself to a bishop. Faced with a checkmate, Kore resigned in 46 moves.

Negi, for the second time in three days, turned a possible defeat into a draw. After Lalith Babu on Saturday, Adhiban let Negi off the hook on Monday. Adhiban, playing black, surprised Negi by opting to play Petroff Defence for the first time.

In the middle game, Negi overrated his chances and tried too hard for initiative. This saw Adhiban gain a central pawn and raise vision of turning the tables on the top-seeded Grandmaster.

“I could see Adhiban winning in more than one variation but he had to play very precisely. I was lucky to find a trick late in the game and make a draw,” was Negi’s candid admission after the 55-move tussle on the top board.

In the day’s biggest upset, former champion N. Sudhakar Babu punished fifth seed M.R. Venkatesh for stretching too hard in search of victory in 65 moves.

Earlier, seventh seed G. Rohit lost to J. Ramakrishna. Among the youngsters, Vidit Gujarati stunned veteran IM Sekhar Sahu and Prasanna Rao outplayed Shashikant Kutwal.

The results (10th round): Parimarjan Negi (8) drew with B. Adhiban (8.5); Akshayraj Kore (7.5) lost to Sriram Jha (8.5); Neelotpal Das (7.5) drew with Prathamesh Mokal (7.5); P. Shyam Nikhil (7) lost to Pravin Thipsay (8); B.T. Murali Krishnan (7.5) drew with M. Shyam Sundar (7.5); M.R. Lalith Babu (7) lost to Saptarshi Roy (8); Rishipal Singh (7) lost to Deepan Chakkravarthy (7.5); R.R. Laxman (7) drew with C. Praveen Kumar (7); N. Sudhakar Babu (7.5) bt M.R. Venkatesh (6.5); G. Rohit (6.5) lost to J. Ramakrishna (7.5); B.S. Shivananda (7) drew with M. S. Thejkumar (7); Aswin Jayaram (7) drew with D.P. Singh (7); P. Konguvel (7.5) bt Rahul Shetty (6.5); Ram Prakash (6.5) lost to S. Satyapragyan (7.5); Ram S. Krishan (7) drew with Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury (7); P. Karthikeyan (7.5) bt Akash Thakur (6.5); Suvrajit Saha (7) drew with Nassir Wajih (7); Vidit Gujarati (7.5) bt Sekhar Sahu (6.5); Vinay Kumar Matta (6.5) lost to Dinesh Sharma (7.5); Shashikant Kutwal (6.5) lost to Prasanna Rao (7.5); E.P. Nirmal (6.5) lost to S. Meenakshi (7.5); Mehar Chinna Reddy (6.5) lost to S.P. Sethuraman (7); P. Phoobalan (7) bt P.D.S. Girinath (6).

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