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Short takes lead; exciting finish on the cards

Rakesh Rao

Arun Prasad joins Ganguly in second place
Short has an awful tiebreak score of 47

NAGPUR: Exciting possibilities emerged as the three-man title-race of the Commonwealth chess championship headed for an unpredictable finish here on Monday.

In the 10th and penultimate round on Sunday, British Grandmaster Nigel Short nosed half-a-point ahead of the fellow overnight-leader Surya Shekhar Ganguly and a resurgent S. Arun Prasad as all three men remained hopeful of emerging as the champion on Monday.

Short, looking for a third title in as many appearances in the event in India, defeated joint leader Bangladesh’s Enamul Hossain in just 30 moves to reach 8.5 points and singularly head the standings for the first time in the competition. Arun Prasad won easily against Vidit Gujarati to catch up with Ganguly at eight points for a share of the second place.

Ganguly held

Ganguly could not maintain his winning spree against R.R. Laxman and drew for the first time against the spirited Chennai-campaigner.

Laxman had beaten Ganguly twice during their sub-junior days but had lost every time since then. Therefore, Laxman had a reason to be pleased after keeping Ganguly at bay in 47 moves.

Arun, whose Grandmaster title awaits the ratification from FIDE, the sport’s governing body, overpowered 13-year-old Vidit in Reti Opening.

Passive play

Arun seized control of the proceedings once the youngster played passively and wasted a few moves. Timely development of pieces saw Arun gain a decisive edge by the 30th move but Vidit delayed the inevitable till the 53rd move.

As things stand, Short is fully aware of his ‘awful’ tiebreak score of 47 as compared to Arun’s 52 and Ganguly’s 51. On Monday, if Short wins against Arun, he takes the title. If Abhijit Kunte manages to hold Ganguly, then a victorious Arun will be the champion. If Arun and Short sign peace, a victorious Ganguly will lift the Cup. Should Arun and Ganguly win, it will boil down to their respective tiebreak scores that can change dramatically depending on the final round results.

The results (Indians unless stated):

10th round: Nigel Short (Eng, 8.5) bt Enamul Hossain (Ban, 7.5); Surya Shekhar Ganguly (8) drew with R.R. Laxman (7); Vidit Gujarati (7) lost to S. Arun Prasad (8); Neelotpal Das (7.5) drew with M.R. Venkatesh (7.5).

Abhijit Kunte (7.5) bt B.T. Murali Krishnan (6.5); Parimarjan Negi (7.5) bt P. Karthikeyan (6.5); Dibyendu Barua (7) drew with Saptarshi Roy (7); Aleksandar Wohl (Aus, 7) drew with Deepan Chakkravarthy (7); M.S. Thejkumar (7.5) bt Rahul Sangma (6.5).

Akshat Khamparia (7) drew with Niaz Murshed (Ban, 7); Aswin Jayaram (7.5) bt R. A. Pradeep Kumar (6.5); P. Konguvel (7) drew with D.P. Singh (7); Sahaj Grover (6) lost to Ziaur Rahman (Ban, 7).

S. Meenakshi (6) lost to P. Magesh Chandran (7); G. Rohit (7) bt M. R. Lalith Babu (6); M. Shyam Sundar (6) lost to Deep Sengupta (7); S.P. Sethuraman (6) lost to K. Priyadarshan (7); Eesha Karavade (6) lost to P.D.S. Girinathn (7).

Himanshu Sharma (7) bt S. Nitin (6); C. Pradeep Kumar (7) bt B. Adhiban (6); T. Purushothaman (6.5) drew with S. Satyapragyan (6.5); Arghyadip Das (6.5) drew with Debashis Das (6.5).

Akshayraj Kore (6.5) drew with Sohan Phadke (6.5); Kiran Manisha Mohanty (6.5) drew with Swapnil Dhopade (6.5); Mas Hafizulhelmi (Mal, 6) lost to R. Premnath (7); Prasanna Rao (6.5) drew with Suvrajit Saha (6.5).

Tejas Ravichandran (6.5) drew with Guy West (Aus, 6.5); Anwesh Upadhyaya (6) lost to Abhijeet Gupta (6.5); S. Kidambi (6.5) bt Saurabh Kherdekar (5.5); N. Srinath (6) drew with Sriram Jha (6).

Leading 11th round pairings: Arun-Short; Ganguly-Kunte; Venkatesh-Negi; Laxman-Neelotpal; Hossain-Thejkumar; Rahman-Aswin; D. P. Singh-Barua; Magesh-Konguvel; Deepan-Praveen; Premnath-Rohit; Deep-Wohl; Murshed-Vidit; Girinath-Khamparia; Saptarshi-Himanshu; Priyadarshan-Arghyadip.

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