Sport - Chess

A day of draws

MANGALORE: After the bloody battles on Saturday, when all but one of six games produced decisive results, normalcy returned to the 46th National ‘A’ chess championship on Sunday. As many as five games were drawn at the Karnataka Bank Auditorium.

The day’s only winner was 15-year-old Parimarjan Negi, India’s youngest GM. He played well to beat former champion P. Konguvel and took his tally to three points.

He is now in the joint second position along with S. Satyapragyan, one point behind the reigning champion Surya Shekhar Ganguly (4). Satyapragyan, who had a bye on Sunday, has played a less game than Ganguly and Negi.

Ganguly had set the tone for the day when he agreed to a quick draw with Sriram Jha. J. Deepan Chakravarthy and Neelotpal Das didn’t take long either to sign the peace treaty.

B. Adhiban and Praveen Thipsay didn’t exactly stretch themselves either before deciding to split the point.

M. Shyam Sundar and M.S. Thejkumar tried to prolong their game for a while before they agreed for a draw. The last game to finish was the one featuring Akshayraj Kore and K. Ratnakaran.

And there was drama too, when Ratnakaran claimed unsuccessfully for a draw with photographic position; the players agreed to share the point a few moves later though. Kore somehow managed to squander his winning chances on more than one occasion.

Ganguly, after his 17-move game in Grunfeld Defence, said that he decided to take it easy as he was playing with black pieces.

The results (fifth round): M. Shyam Sundar 2.5 drew with M.S. Thejkumar 2.5; B. Adhiban 1 drew with Praveen Thipsay 1; Parimarjan Negi 3 bt P. Konguvel 2; Akshayraj Kore 2.5 drew with K. Ratnakaran 2.5; J. Deepan Chakravarthy 2.5 drew with Neelotpal Das 2; Sriram Jha 1.5 drew with Surya Shekhar Ganguly 4; S. Satyapragyan 3 bye.

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