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Abhijeet stuns Ganguly

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Abhijeet Gupta is fast gaining the respect of the Grandmasters as the race for the title reached the home-stretch in the 6th Parsvnath International Open chess tournament at the Modern School here on Saturday.

The 18-year-old Bhilwara boy, awaiting official confirmation of being the country’s 17th Grandmaster, pulled off a stunning 34-move victory over second seed and National champion Surya Shekhar Ganguly in the ninth round and emerged as the country’s best bet for the top prize of Rs. 2.25 lakh.

Abhijeet, who came into the reckoning by surprising GM Elizbar Ubilava on Friday, plays white against Uzbekistan’s Marat Dzhumaev in Sunday’s final round. The two leaders have eight points. Minutes after Abhijeet’s victory, Marat gained from a friendly resignation from compatriot Saidali Iuldachev.

For the better part of the 34-move Sicilian game, Ganguly looked better off. However, Abhijeet managed to turn the tables once Ganguly got too ambitious. With Ganguly’s queen too far away to come to the king’s rescue, a tactical combination saw Abhijeet give up with queen for a rook, a knight and bishop and threaten to checkmate. A hapless Ganguly gave up and accepted his first defeat to the youngster in three decisive head-to-head battles.

The results: Ninth round (Indians unless stated): S.S. Ganguly (7.5) lost to Abhijeet Gupta (8); Saidali Iuldachev (Uzb, 6.5) lost to Marat Dzhumaev (Uzb, 8); Igor Kurnosov (Rus, 7) drew with G.B. Prakash (7); Roktim Bandyopadhyay (7) drew with Abhijit Kunte (7); C. Praveen Kumar (7) drew with Nguyen Anh Dung (Vie, 7); Debashis Das (6.5) lost to Ziaur Rahman (Ban, 7.5); V.A.V. Rajesh (6.5) lost to Sriram Jha (7.5); Zhanibek Amanov (Kaz, 6.5) drew with Ehsan Ghaem Maghami (Iri, 6.5); P. Karthikeyan (7) bt Elizbar Ubilava (Esp, 6); Yuri Solodovnichenko (Ukr, 7) bt Swati Ghate (6); M.R. Venkatesh (7) bt N. Sudhakar Babu (6); K. Ratnakaran (7) bt D.P. Singh (6); P. Shyam Nikhil (6.5) drew with P.D.S. Girinath (6.5); S. Arun Prasad (6) lost to Prasenjit Datta (7); Morteza Darban (Iri, 6.5) drew with Ram Prakash (6.5); M.R. Lalith Babu (6) lost to Himanshu Sharma (7); Soumyaranjan Mishra (6.5) drew with V. Saravanan (6.5); Enamul Hossain (Ban, 5.5) lost to Swayams Mishra (7); C.J. Arvind (5.5) lost to Morteza Mahjoob (Iri, 6.5); Shukhrat Safin (Uzb, 6.5) bt K. Priyadarshan (5.5); J. Ramakrishna (5.5) lost to Pravin Thipsay (6.5); S. Kidambi (6.5) bt Vinay Kumar Matta (5.5); Gurpreet Pal Singh (5.5) lost to R.R. Laxman (6.5); Kiran Manisha Mohanty (6.5) bt Tania Sachdev (5.5); Akshayraj Kore (5.5) lost to Bitan Banerjee (6.5); M.S. Thejkumar (6.5) bt Mary Ann Gomes (5.5); Abhishek Das (5.5) lost to Jasur Madjidov (Uzb, 6.5); Irina Zakurdjaeva (Rus, 5.5) lost to Vinoth Kumar (6.5); Arjun Tiwari (6.5) bt Badri Nepali (Nep, 5.5); Shashikant Kutwal (6.5) bt Sayantan Das (5.5); Mehar Chinna Reddy (6) drew with Akash Thakur (6); J.K. Raju (5.5) lost to Akshat Khamparia (6.5); Antonio Viani D’Cunha (6.5) bt Swapnil Dhopade (5.5); Sapar Batyrov (Tkm,) lost to Anant Dole (RSA, 6.5).

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