Tuesday, Jan 21, 2003
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Chess
By Raghunandan Gokhale
Tania Sachdev (left) ponders her next move against Aarthie Ramaswamy in the National `A' chess championship, in Mumbai on Monday. The game ended in a draw.
Among the men, former holder Dibyendu Barua (Tisco) joined fellow GM P. Harikrishna (Wipro) at the top on four points while Aarthie had to share the lead with IWMs Nisha Mohota (LIC) and D. Harika (Wipro). Despite her fighting spirit, overnight leader Aarthie could not overcome Tania in Sicilian Defence. Once Aarthie missed some good moves in the middle game, the Delhi girl, sponsored by Hughes Software, hung on grimly to a draw. Aarthie's pair of bishops was left without much space to inflict any damage. Harika left her king boldly in the centre against Pratibha's Dutch Stonewall Defence. The Wipro beneficiary, kept Pratibha's pieces at bay while launching her own attack on the black king. Pratibha lost a pawn in the middle game and her position slowly went downhill. IWM Nisha Mohota (2.5) joined Aarthie and Harika in the lead with a fighting win over teenager Krutika Nadig in Benko Gambit. The black knights in the centre were troubling Nisha when suddenly Kruttika played a rash move losing both the stallions for Nisha's rook. Thereafter it was just a matter of routine for the tiny IWM from LIC. Abhijit Kunte's escape against seasoned IM G.B. Prakash was simply unbelievable. The GM from Pune had lost an exchange without any compensation in Queen's Indian Defence. Prakash played a hasty move of his Queen and blundered the exchange. It was then Prakash who strived hard to win the game but had to settle for a draw. After winning three games on a trot, Harikrishna played cautiously and drew both the games today. In the first game, he was confronted by Soman's speculative piece sacrifice in Torre Attack. Hari did not dare touch the piece left in front of a pawn for many moves. Soman's timely offer of a draw ended his indecision and he signed peace immediately. After the mighty Sasikiran had failed to breach Kidambi's Caro Kann Defence in the third round, it was now Harikrishna's turn to get frustrated. Kidambi easily held his ground from the black pieces and ended the day without any loss. He had earlier drawn a fighting game with Tejas Bakre in the morning. Top-seeded Sasikiran, who needs a whopping 16 points from 20 games just to maintain his ratings, took his `revenge' when he beat fellow GM Pravin Thipsay from the Black side of a Spanish Opening. In the last Nationals at Nagpur, Thipsay had beaten Sasi with the darker side. GM Ganguly drew his morning game against his Statemate IM Neelotpal Das after going through some anxious moments. He was back in form against Prathamesh Mokal in the evening to register a win in Sicilian Pelikan game. The results: Men: Fourth round: S.S. Ganguly (2.5) drew with Neelotpal Das (1.5); Lanka Ravi (2.5) drew with Saptarshi Roy (2.5); Dibyendu Barua (3) bt R.B. Ramesh (0.5); G.B. Prakash (1.5) drew with Abhijit Kunte (2.5); Suvrajit Saha (2) drew with V. Sarvanan (1); Sriram Jha (0.5) lost to Arvind Shastry (2.5); S. Satyapragyan (0.5) lost to M.R. Venkatesh (2); S.S. Soman (1.5) drew with P. Harikrishna (3.5); S. Kidambi (1.5) drew with Tejas Bakre (3); Pravin Thipsay (0.5) lost to K. Sasikiran (3.5). Fifth round: Tejas Bakre (3.5) drew with Pravin Thipsay (1); P. Harikrishna (4) drew with S. Kidambi (2); M.R. Venkatesh (3) bt S.S. Soman (1.5); Arvind Shastry (2.5) lost to S. Satyapragyan (1.5); V. Sarvanan (1.5) drew with Sriram Jha (1); Abhijit Kunte (3.5) bt Suvrajit Saha (2); R.B. Ramesh (1) drew with G.B. Prakash (2); Saptarshi Roy (2.5) lost to Dibyendu Barua (4); Neelotpal Das (2.5) bt Lanka Ravi (2.5); P. Mokal (1.5) lost to S.S. Ganguly (3.5). Women (third round): Nisha Mohota (2.5) bt Krutika Nadig (0); D. Harika (2.5) bt Y. Pratibha (1.5); R. Sai Meera (0.5) lost to Eesha Karvade (1); Aarthie Ramaswamy (2.5) drew with Tania Sachdev (2); J.E. Kavitha (0.5) drew with Swathi Mohota (1); S. Meenakshi (1) drew with S. Vijayalakshmi (1.5).
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