Against all expectations, an inspired Air-India scored a crushing 3-1 victory over defending champion and top seed Petroleum to cause a sensation in the fifth round of the National club team chess championship here on Wednesday.
The stunning result was reminiscent of the 2004 edition of the championship at Pune where the aviation men, then playing as Indian Airlines, overpowered Petroleum 2.5-1.5 before going on to win the title.
The keenly-awaited clash between the two strong teams produced its share of thrills before Air-India emerged as the leader by maintaining its all-win record. With 10 match-points, Air-India is two clear of Petroleum, Railways ‘A’ and Railways ‘B’. Four rounds remain.
The all-Grandmaster team from Petroleum, with higher rated players on each of the four boards, failed to play anywhere close to its reputation. Worse, its pride stood brutally battered with Air-India winning two games with black pieces and drawing the other two with white.
After S. Satyapragyan had predictably held Abhjit Kunte in 40 moves on the third board, G. B. Joshi, the only untitled player in the match, drew first blood for Air-India by shocking Deepan Chakkravarthy in 40 moves.
Meanwhile, Tejas Bakre converted his advantage into victory against Arun Prasad in 60 moves to give Air-India an unbeatable lead. On the top board, Parimarjan Negi enjoyed better play against K. Sasikiran but could not make the most of it. Sasikiran slowly gained ground only to settle for an 80-move draw.
On the lower boards, where most results came on expected lines, Tamil Nadu played above its rating to hold formidable LIC 2-2, thanks to P. Maheswaran’s victory over off-form Atanu Lahiri. LIC drew parity with Gajendra Singh getting the better of K. Narayanan. Earlier, young Ramnath Bhuvanesh held Sriram Jha and Venkat Sundaram drew with Anup Deshmukh.
In the women’s section, Dibyendu Barua Chess Academy and LIC posted expected victories.
The results:
Open (fifth round): Air-India (10) beat Petroleum (8) 3-1 (Parimarjan Negi drew with K. Sasikiran; Tejas Bakre bt Arun Prasad; S. Satyapragyan drew with Abhijit Kunte; G. B. Joshi bt Deepan Chakkravarthy); Railways ‘A’ (8) beat West Bengal (6) 4-0; R. R. Laxman bt Debashish Mukherjee; M. S. Thejkumar bt Santu Mondal; B. T. Murali Krishnan bt Rupankar Nath; K. Ratnakaran bt Niladri Shekhar Bhattacharya); Railways ‘B’ (8) beat Kerala (6) 3.5-0.5; Tamil Nadu (7) drew with LIC (7); Punjab (6) beat Delhi (4) 3.5-0.5; HP ‘A’ (4) lost to Bihar ‘A’ (6); Haryana ‘A’ (5) drew with UP (5) 2-2; TCS (5) drew with Services (5); Madhya Shetra ‘A’ (3) lost to Madhya Shetra ‘B’ (6) 1-3; AICF-Blind (2) lost to BKT (4) 1-3; Bihar ‘B’ (4) beat Kamaksha HP (2) 3-1; HBTI (2) lost to Electricity Board (4) 0-4; Haryana ‘B’ (3) bye.
Women (second round): Bihar (0) lost to DBCA (4) 0-4 (Jyoti lost to Mary Ann Gomes; Amrita Choudhary lost to Kiran Manisha Mohanty; Sunita Choudhary lost to Saheli Dhar-Barua; Soumya lost to Swati Mohota); Haryana (0) lost to LIC (4) 1.5-2.5 (Anshul Kaushik lost to Bindu Saritha; Aditi Mehra lost to Jayashree Sankpal; Kriti Lamba drew with Radhika Chavali; Tanisha Kotia bt Mithali Thadani); Tamil Nadu (0) bye.
Leading pairings: Open (sixth round): Railways ‘A’-Air-India; Petroleum-Tamil Nadu; LIC-Railways ‘B’; West Bengal-Bihar ‘A’; Madhya Shetra ‘B’-Punjab.
