The Hindu : Sport : Parimarjan slips on the threshold of victory

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Saturday, Dec 08, 2007
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Parimarjan slips on the threshold of victory

Rakesh Rao

NEW DELHI: Himanshu Sharma is doing just enough to stay ahead. Defying the odds, this International Master from Haryana once again proved that he is neither intimidated by the rating nor the reputation of his rival.

Playing against Bangladesh’s GM Abdulla Al-Rakib, Himanshu worked his way to a 41-move victory in an equal end-game to raise his tally to 6.5 points from seven rounds of the Parsvnath Commonwealth chess championship at the Siri Fort Complex here on Friday.

But the biggest draw of the day was the match involving young Parimarjan Negi and Kerala’s IM K. Ratnakaran.

Firmly on the learning curve, Parimarjan discovered how painful it could get to slip on the threshold of victory.

Parimarjan is playing his first open championship in India after becoming a GM. Being a local has only added to the pressure on the youngster.

On Friday, the 14-year-old produced a sure sign of gaining the authority associated with GMs.

He sacrificed a couple of pieces to rip open Ratnakaran’s kingside, but lost his way dramatically for an educational loss.

False move

One false move from Parimarjan gave Ratnakaran the route to escape for a fortuitous victory in 49 moves.

Alone in the second place with six points, the soft-spoken Kerala campaigner will play Himanshu on the top board on Saturday.

A crowd of 16 players share the third spot at 5.5 points. This group includes top seed Surya Shekhar Ganguly who drew with S. Kidambi.

Those who made it with a win are second seeded British GM Gawain Jones, Shashikant Kutwal, Bangladesh’s GM Reefat Bin Sattar, former National champion P. Konguvel, M.S. Thejkumar and Deep Sengupta.

However, Dibyendu Barua missed a good chance to join this group following a draw with Australia’s Alexander Wohl.

Among the lot, Jharkhand’s young IM Deep Sengupta posted his fifth straight victory after playing R. Premnath. Kutwal stunned GM Deepan Chakkravarthy, while Thejkumar upstaged IM M.R. Venkatesh.

Sahaj Grover remained on 4.5 points, but battled all the way against GM Tejas Bakre before faltering in an equal endgame.

The results (Indians unless stated): Seventh round: Himanshu Sharma (6.5) bt Abdullah Al-Rakib (5): S. Kidambi (5.5) drew with Surya Shekhar Ganguly (5.5).

Parimarjan Negi (5) lost to K. Ratnakaran (6); S. Arun Prasad (5.5) drew with D. Harika (5.5); Nisha Mohota (5.5) drew with R.B. Ramesh (5.5).

Pravin Thipsay (5.5) drew with Lanka Ravi (5.5); Sriram Jha (5.5) drew with Vikramaditya Kamble (5.5); Gawain Jones (Eng) (5.5) bt Saptarshi Roy (4.5); Niaz Murshed (Ban) (5) drew with Abhijit Kunte (5); Deepan Chakkravarthy (4.5) lost to Shashikant Kutwal (5.5).

Aleksandar Wohl (Aus) (5) drew with Dibyendu Barua (5); Reefat Bin Sattar (Ban) (5.5) bt Dilip Das (4.5); D.V. Prasad (5) drew with Abhijeet Gupta (5); P. Konguvel (5.5) bt David Smerdon (Aus) (4.5); M.S. Thej Kumar (5.5) bt M.R. Venkatesh (4.5).

R. Premnath (4.5) lost to Deep Sengupta (5.5); Sahaj Grover (4.5) lost to Tejas Bakre (5.5); G. Rohit (5) bt Saurabh Kherdekar (4); P.D.S. Girinath (5) bt Ram Prakash (4); Mary Ann Gomes (4) bt Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury (4); Debashis Das (4.5) drew with Tania Sachdev (4.5).

Mahmood Lodhi (Pak) (5) bt Krishna Saravana (4); Vinay Kumar Matta (4) lost to R.R. Laxman (5); Swapnil Dhopade (4) lost to Abhishek Das (5); V. Saravanan (5) bt Rishipal Singh (5); R. Ashwath (4.5) drew with G.B. Joshi (4.5).

Roktim Bandyopadhyay (4.5) drew with Mehar Chinna Reddy (4.5); Arghyadip Das (5) bt Padmini Rout (4); Akshat Khamparia (4.5) drew with Kruttika Nadig (4.5); Soumya Swaminathan (5) bt Aditya Udeshi (4).

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