The Hindu : Sport / Chess : Himanshu surprises Ramesh, takes lead

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Thursday, Dec 06, 2007
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Himanshu surprises Ramesh, takes lead

NEW DELHI: R.B. Ramesh’s decision to sacrifice a rook for a bishop backfired and eventually paved the way for Himanshu Sharma to emerge as the sole leader at the halfway stage of the Parsvnath Commonwealth chess championship at the Siri Fort Complex here on Wednesday.

On a double-round day, Himanshu’s fifth round victory made him the only player with a perfect score.

At the adjacent table, top seed Surya Shekhar Ganguly drew with Australia’s Aleksander Wohl to reach four points.

After Himanshu’s surprise victory, his second over Ramesh, it was Tamil Nadu’s former Asian junior champion S. Arun Prasad who hogged the spotlight by stunning second seeded British GM Gawain Jones in 56 moves.

Negi’s fine win

Parimarjan Negi, playing in an open tournament for the first time since January 2006, dealt a blow to veteran International Master D.V. Prasad’s comeback campaign when he coasted to a 34-move victory with black pieces.

Earlier in the day, Negi was lucky to win from a seemingly drawn position after Akshat Khamparia overlooked a checkmating combination.

Joining Negi in the second spot was Bangladesh GM Reefan Bin Sattar who ended the unbeaten run of Asian ladies champion Tania Sachdev.

Keen battle

The Himanshu-Ramesh battle was keenly fought following the opening lines of Sicilian Defence. Ramesh took the initiative from the queenside but a premature queen-advance proved his undoing.

On the 30 th turn, Ramesh thought for 10 minutes before giving up his rook for a bishop. Himanshu, who did not expect this move, kept his cool and advanced one of his queenside pawns. A hapless Ramesh gave up in 45 moves.

The results (Indians unless stated):

Fifth round: Himanshu Sharma (5) bt R.B. Ramesh (4); Aleksande Wohl (Aus) (4) drew with Surya Shekhar Ganguly (4); D.V. Prasad ( 3.5) lost to Parimarjan Negi (4.5); V. Saravanan (4) drew with Abdullah Al-Rakib (4); Reefan Bin Sattar (Ban) (4.5) bt Tania Sachdev (3.5); S. Kidambi (4) drew with Ram Prakash (4); Roktim Bandyopadhyay (4) drew with K. Ratnakaran (4); Aarthie Ramaswamy (3) lost to Abhijit Kunte (4); Vidit Gujarati (3) lost to Abhijeet Gupta (4); Sriram Jha (4) bt Saurabh Kherdekar (3); S. Mari Arul (3) lost to Nisha Mohota (4); R. Balasubramanium (3) lost to Saptarshi Roy (4); Mahmood Lodhi (Pak) (4) bt Rishipal Singh (3); P. Konguvel ( 3.5) drew with Mehar Chinna Reddy (3.5); Lanka Ravi (4) bt Atul Dahale (3); R. Premnath (4) bt Abhishek Das (3); P. Phoobalan (3) lost to R. Ashwath (3); Antonio Viani D’cunha (4) bt Aditya Udeshi (3); Vaibhav Suri (4) bt Eesha Karavade (3); Sahaj Grover ( 3.5) bt Mas Hafizulhelmi (Mas) (2.5); Prathamesh Mokal (3) drew with Padmini Rout (3).

Fourth round: Ram Prakash drew with Aswin; Ramesh bt Lodhi; Ratnakaran drew with Saravanan; Arun Prasad drew with Bandyopadhyay; Himanshu bt Prasenjit Datta; Ganguly bt Prathamesh Mokal; Mas Hafizulhelmi (Mal) lost to Jones; Negi bt Akshat Khamparia; Abdullah Al-Rakib bt Lalith Babu; Thej Kumar drew with Deepan; Udeshi drew with Rohit; Karthikeyan lost to Sattar; Harika drew with Aarthie; Abhijeet drew with Swati; Tejas drew with Priyadarshan; Gokhale lost to Kidambi; Eesha drew with Murshed; Nisha drew with Debashis Das; Shashikant Kutwal lost to Wohl; Tania bt Shekhar Sahu.

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