Favourite Petroleum and second seed Air India warmed up for their much-awaited fifth-round clash with resounding victories on Tuesday when the action finally commenced in the poorly represented women's section in the National club team chess championship at the DAV Public School here.
Grandmasters S. Arun Prasad and Deepan Chakkravarthy provided the margin of victory in Petroleum's 3-1 triumph over third seed Railways ‘A' while K. Sasikiran and S. Kidambi were forced to settle for draws.
Air India scored a crushing 3.5-0.5 victory over Kerala with GMs Parimarjan Negi, Tejas Bakre and S. Satyapragyan winning on expected lines. Kerala's D. Salil Kumar prevented a clean sweep by holding experienced IM Rahul Shetty.
LIC just about beat Haryana ‘A' by the narrowest of margins after former Commonwealth champion Atanu Lahiri lost to M.C. Tanwar on the second board. Playing white, Sriram Jha and the in-form Anup Deshmukh won against Himanshu Sharma and Manav Saxena.
In the women's section that has attracted just five teams, Tamil Nadu's talented spearhead S. Harini surprised lone Woman Grandmaster Mary Ann Gomes but could not prevent DBCA's 3-1 triumph. LIC beat Bihar 2.5-1.5.
DBCA is widely expected to win the title while Tamil Nadu and LIC will fight for the second qualifying spot to participate in the World Club Team championship to be held at Abu Dhabi in July.
The results: Open (fourth round): Petroleum (8) bt Railways ‘A' (6) 3-1 (K. Sasikiran drew with Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury; S. Arun Prasad bt R.R. Laxman; S. Kidambi drew with M.S. Thejkumar; Deepan Chakkravarthy bt K. Ratnakaran); Kerala (6) lost to Air India (8) 0.5-3.5 (O.T. Anil Kumar lost to Parimarjan Negi; Ganesh Bhat lost to Tejas Bakre; P.S Ameer lost to S. Satyapragyan; Salil Kumar drew with Rahul Shetty).
Delhi (4) lost to Railways ‘B' (6) 0.5-3.5; LIC (6) bt Haryana ‘A' (4) 2.5-1.5; Bihar ‘A' (4) lost to Tamil Nadu (6) 0.5-3.5; West Bengal (6) bt TCS (4) 3-1; Budhibal Kreeda Trust (2) lost to Punjab (4) 0-4; U.P. (4) bt Bihar ‘B' (2) 3.5-0.5; Services (4) bt HBTI (2) 4-0; AICF-Blind (2) lost to HP ‘A' 1-3; Kamaksha HP (2) lost to Madhya Shetra ‘B' (4) 1-3; Haryana ‘B' (1) lost to Madhya Shetra ‘A' (3) 1-3. Electricity Board (2) bye.
Women (first round): LIC (2) bt Bihar (0) 2.5-1.5 (Bindu Saritha bt Jyoti; Jayashree Sankpal drew with Amrita Choudhary; Radhika Chavali lost to Sunita Choudhary; Mithali Thadani bt Preyashi Raj); Dibyendu Barua Academy (2) bt Tamil Nadu (0) 3-1 (Mary Ann Gomes lost to S. Harini; Kiran Manisha Mohanty bt C.H. Savetha; Saheli Dhar Barua bt A. Akshaya; Swati Mohota bt A. Sithalatchumi); Haryana bye.
