Unfancied players make merry

By Raghunandan Gokhale

RAIPUR (CHHATTISGARH), NOV. 6. On a bad day for the favourites, the unfancied players made merry in the first two rounds of 27th National Sub- Junior and 18th National Sub-Junior girls chess championship at the Sibbal Palace here on Tuesday.

Among the boys, top seeded J.Deepan Chakravarthy (TN) was held to a draw by G.S.Maras (Maharashtra) in the second round, while the first round witnessed seeded R.Siddharth (TN) and G.Rohit (AP) blundered to lose their games to unfancied opponents.

The top three seeds in the girls' section failed to maintain clean slate. Top seeded M.Priyadarshini (TN) went down tamely to Delhi girl Dhara Gupta in the shocker of the day. Third seeded S.Nabeela Farheen followed suit with a tame loss to Supriya Majhi (Goodricke National Chess Academy) in the second round.

Odds-on favourite Asian Junior girls champion M.Kasturi representing All India Chess Federation Secretarys special seat here was held to a draw by Andhra girl Vinuthna in the second round. Vinuthna's teammate T.Arvind Lochni played inspired game to hold Internationally rated Nimmy George (Kerala) to a draw.

Top seeded Deepan showed a sound technique on way to an easy victory over Tesar Singh Chouhan in the first round. Tesar mishandled the Black side of Spanish Opening and unnecessarily opened the game with his King still in the centre. Deepan was quick to swoop two pawns and won in 43 moves. Deep Sengupta, the former World under-10 champion was in his element on way to a win over Delhi boy Kunal Gupta from the Black side of

Kings Indian Attack. Deep's pawn sacrifice on the 20th move opened an avenue of attack against the White monarch. Kunal surrendered in 31 moves.

Manish Kumar Sharma's inept handling of Accelerated Dragon Defence left him with dark square weaknesses around his own King. Saptarshi Roy targetted the Black King to win in 29 moves in the first round.

Delhi girl Dhara Gupta was too excited to play the top seed in the very first round. Priyadarshini, who had survived an automobile accident few hours back was too shaken to concentrate. She lost two pieces in the middle game and should have lost in 40 moves but Dhara's inexperience allowed her to stay in the game till 60 moves.

The second round saw Deepan trying hard to brake G.P.Maras Sicilian Defence but Maras plugged all the holes in his position effectively to frustrate the top seed in three hours of battle.

The results (second round):

Boys: G.S.Maras (Mah) 1.5 drew with J.Deepan Chakravarthy (TN) 1.5; Deep Sengupta (Jhar) 2 bt Subodh lakhe (Mah) 1; Suman basu (GNCA) 1 lost to Saptarshi Roy (GNCA) 2; Somak Palit (GNCA) 2 bt Vishnu Ramanath (Kar) 1; Vaibhav Saxena (Mah) 2 bt Shravan Barve (Goa) 1; Swapnil Hoble (Goa) 1 lost to Abhijit Gupta (Raj) 2; K.Nikhilesh Kumar (AP) 2 bt Jagdish H.D.(Kar) 1; Akshayraj Kore (Mah) 2 bt Anoop Singh (UP) 1; Himanshu Kumar (Del) 2 bt S.Arun Prasad (AP) 1.

Girls: S.Vinuthana (AP) 1.5 drew with M.Kasturi (AICF) 1.5; S.Nabeela Farheen (CA)1 lost to Supriya Majhi (GNCA) 2; K.Durga Bhavani (AP) 1 lost to Eesha Karavade (Mah) 2; Baisakhi Das (Al.CC) 2 bt Swathy Rajpurohit (Raj) 1; Nimmy George (Ker) 1.5 drew with T.Arvind Lochani (AP) 1.5; Priya Rathnam (Bih) 1 lost to Kruttika Nadig (Venus CA) 2; L.Ishwarya Shobana (TN) 2 bt S.Aneeqha Tahsen (CHR) 1; Shreyasi Parakhi (NCA) 1 lost to Amruta Mokal (Mah) 2; S.Soumya (Mah) 2 bt Madhura Deshpande (Mah) 1; Manognya Mandava (AP) 1.5 drew with V.K.Sindhu (TN) 1.5.

First round: Boys: J.Deepan Chakravarthy (TN) bt T.S.Chouhan (MP); Kunal Dutta (Del) lost to Deep Sengupta (Jhar); Saptarshi Roy (GNCA) bt Manish Sharma (Jhar); Ankit Amartya (Bih) lost to Somak Palit (GNCA); R.Siddharth (TN) lost to Sourav Roop (Bih); N.T.Rama Rao (Ori) bt G.Rohit (AP); Rahul Sangma (Bih) bt Sourav Sinha (NLM); Ramesh Kumar (Jhar) lost to Vaibhav Saxena (Mah); Abhijit Gupta (Raj) bt Rahul S.Chouhan (Del); Aniket Patni (MP) lost to K.Nikhilesh Kumar (AP).

Girls: Dhara Gupta (Del) bt M.Priyadarshini (TN); M.Kasturi (AICF) bt J.Rajasurya (TN); Swetha Narayanan (TN) lost to S.Nabeela Farheen (CA); Eesha Karvade (Mah) bt Sneha Hoble (Goa); Priyanka Bapat (MP) lost to Baisakhi Das (Alekhine CC); Aswathy Balagopal (Ker) bt Akshata Desai (Goa); Swapnita Shinde (CG) lost to Nimmy George (Ker); Kruttika Nadig (Venus CA) bt Amisha Pable (MP); B.Aruna (CG) lost to L.Ishwarya Shobana (TN); Amrutha Mokal (Mah) bt Dipmala Chande (Guj).

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