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Chess
Unbeaten Kashelkar triumphs
By Raghunandan Gokhale
THANE, DEC. 8. Nineteen year old Ramkrishna Kashelkar (9 points) of Maharashtra won the Rochess International Rating chess tournament which concluded here on Saturday. Tamil Nadu's R.R. Laxman, who tied with Kashelkar on nine points, had to be satisfied with the runners-up slot because of lower progressive score.
Kashelkar was the only unbeaten player in the tournament as he conceded just two draws while notching up eight wins in the ten round tournament of 180 participants.
In the last round, he defended the black side of French Tarrasch Defence against talented Goa youngster T.S. Venkatramanan to clinch the title with a draw. Kashelkar was lucky in the penultimate round when former National `B' champion R. Balasubramanium (ICF) refused the former's peace proposal and went on to lose.
Laxman was again at his best in the last round after shocking top seeded Rahul Shetty in the ninth and penultimate round with a whirlwind attack. Against Rahul, Laxman adopted Sicilian Dragon Defence and sacrificed a pawn early to open lines against Rahul's king. Rahul missed some chances while defending and succumbed to a pretty combination from Laxman in the end.
Laxman overcame Vikramaditya Kamble in the final round after defending against Vikramaditya's king-side attack in King's Indian Defence. Laxman won an exchange in tactical skirmishes and pocketed the point with correct technique. Laxman had nine wins in the tournament with a single loss to Kashelkar.
Top-seeded Rahul Shetty had to fight till the end to overcome teenager Yashraj Aidasani from the black side of Queen's Indian Defence. Rahul, who had lost only games to the top two finishers, finished third.
T.S. Venkatramanan (Goa) was fourth while former National `A' Player N. Neelakantan (CBI), who scored a brilliant win over D. Ravishankar (Mah), was placed fifth. Pravin Prasad, who was joint leader with Kashelkar at one stage, was sixth.
The organisers conducted a blitz tournament on the last day. Pune schoolboy and National under-12 bronze medallist Soumitra Muzumdar won the tournament ahead of all the stalwarts.
Final standings: Ramkrishna Kashelkar (Mah) 9 points (51.5 progressive), R.R. Laxman (TN) 9 (51), Rahul Shetty (IA) 8 (46), T.S. Venkatramanan (Goa) 8 (44.5), N. Neelakantan (CBI) 8 (42.5), P. Pravin Prasad (AP) 7.5, Vikramaditya Kamble (Mah) 7, (44/35), Sushant Bannerjee (Mah) 7 (44/34.5), R. Balasubramanium (ICF, Chennai) 7 (43.5), D. Ravishankar (Mah) 7 (42.5).
Important results:
Tenth and final round: Venkatramanan (8) drew with Kashelkar (9), Laxman (9) bt Vikramaditya Kamble (7), Y. Aidasani (7) lost to Rahul Shetty (8), D. Ravishankar (7) lost to N. Neelakantan (8), S. Bannerjee (7) drew with R. Balasubramanium (7), Chaitanya Vaidya (7) drew with Manoj Mishra (7), Sagar Sadavarte (6.5) lost to Pravin Prasad (7.5).
Ninth round: Balsubramanium lost to Kashelkar, Shetty lost to Laxman, Prasad lost to Venkatramanan, Aidasani bt A. Bartakke (6), Kamble bt Devendra Kumar (6).
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