Date:29/09/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/09/29/stories/2008092961291900.htm

Sport - Chess

Ganguly prevails over Harini

Rakesh Rao

NAGPUR: Veteran Grandmaster Dibyendu Barua escaped an embarrassing defeat to 14-year-old J. Mohana Priya and Surya Shekhar Ganguly was almost humbled by S. Harini as some young girls aptly hogged the limelight on Daughter’s Day that coincided with the opening day of the Commonwealth chess championship at the Naivedhyam Celebration Centre here on Sunday.

In the day’s longest game, lasting 83 moves, Barua survived due to some timely tactics and Mohana Priya’s inexperience in the endgame.

The bespectacled girl sacrificed a rook for knight to raise visions of a huge upset.

Sensing danger, Barua returned the rook for knight and chose to reach an ending involving rooks but down two pawns.

Thereafter, Mohana did not continue accurately and allowed the eighth-seeded former champion to get away with a draw.

Harini raised visions of stunning Ganguly but lost her way due to paucity of time and gave up in 38 moves.

With Ganguly almost sweating in the air-conditioned hall, Harini somewhat rushed with her offensive tactics that allowed the five-time National champion to come up with a timely counter-attack.

Laxman held

Earlier, the highly-talented but unpredictable seventh seed R.R. Laxman drew with Chandrasish Majumdar in what was a continuation of his poor form that saw him miss the qualification to National championship last week. Laxman, rated nearly 450 points above, signed peace in 37 moves.

Fellow-IM K. Ratnakaran also went though several anxious moments before overpowering young Pratik Patil.

On a day all fancied players were expected to brush aside far lesser-rated rivals, 11-year-old Shardul Gagare made top-seeded British GM Nigel Short play 48 moves before surrendering.

Among the ladies, Woman Grandmaster S. Meenakshi dropped half a point to little-known Eshwanth Dev Kumar.

The results (Indians unless stated):First round: Nigel Short (Eng) bt Shardul Gagare; S. Harini lost to Surya Shekhar Ganguly; Ziaur Rahman (Ban) bt Anuprita Patil; N. Raghavi lost to Abhijit Kunte; Abhijeet Gupta bt M. Suraj; Mitali Patil lost to Parimarjan Negi; R.R. Laxman drew with Chandrasish Majumdar; J. Mohana Priya drew with Dibyendu Barua; S. Arun Prasad bt Hardik Mehta; Devangi Patankar lost to Enamul Hossain (Ban); P. Magesh Chandran bt Diptayan Ghosh; Osheen Deepan Chakkravarthy bt R. Eswar;

Rishi Thariani lost to Neelotpal Das; M.R. Venkatesh bt Deepthamesh Reddy; Devesh Mukherjee lost to Deep Sengupta; K. Ratnakaran bt Pratik Patil; Sidhant Mahapatra lost to S. Kidambi; M.S. Thejkumar bt D. Yashas; Niaz Murshed (Ban) bt V.N. Ghate;

Pradip Tiwari lost to Aswin Jayaram; Sriram Jha bt S.S. Dave; Shristi Shetty lost to S.P. Sethuraman; P.D.S. Girinath bt Nihal Manjunath; Lolla Sembhu lost to Himanshu Sharma; B. Adhiban bt G.V. Wijesuriya(Sri); R.K. Gupta lost to P. Konguvel.