The young pack of world-beaters, led by the B. Adhiban of Tamil Nadu, continued to dominate the show, picking up full points, at the end of the third round of the National ‘B’ chess here on Saturday.
Adhiban, the under-16 World champion, was joined at the top by the under-14 World champion Vidit Gujrathi of Maharashtra and under-16 runner-up S.P. Sethuraman, who won their respective games with consummate ease.
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In all 17 players shared the lead with three points each after the the third round.
Adhiban, who turned 17 on Saturday, celebrated his birthday with a fluent victory over G.A. Stany of Karnataka in 24 moves while Gujrathi got the better of veteran IM Varugeese Koshy of Tamil Nadu with black pieces.
Rahul Shetty turned the tide against his higher-rated opponent M.S. Thejkumar. Rahul’s king proved to be a strong piece against the third-seeded Thejkumar.
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The youngest World champion in the fray, Sayantan Das, failed to join his successful compatriots going down to IM Sudhakar Babu. Babu sacrificed a knight for three pawns in the middle game, which gave him two connected passed pawns in the centre. Das, the under-12 World champion, tried to ease the pressure by giving back his knight, but it proved futile in the end.
Full points for Padmini
Padmini Rout of Orissa defeated K. Priyadarshan of Tamil Nadu in a sharp game arising from Sicilian defence.
The only WGM of the meet, Mary Ann Gomes of Bengal prevailed over compatriot Debashis Mukherjee in 37 moves in an English opening.
Top seeded Deep Sengupta, who drew in the second round, found his rhythm to overcome Sanjeev Biswas of Chandigarh.
With no matches on Sunday, the action resumes on Monday, which will have two rounds.
Important results (round three) : G.A. Stany (Kar) 2 lost to B. Adhiban (TN) 3; M.S. Thejkumar (RSPB) 2 lost to Rahul Shetty (IA) 3; Abhishek Das (Jha) 2 lost to S.P. Sethuraman (TN) 3; Himanshu Sharma (Har) 3 bt Girish Koushik (Kar) 2; Varugeese Koshy (TN) 2 lost to Vidit Gujrathi (Mah) 3; Arvind Shastry (Kar) 2 lost to M. Shyam Sundar (TN) 3; Arjun Tiwari (Mah) 2.5 drew with Prathamesh Mokal (Mah) 2.5; Ram Prakash (Pun) 2 lost to P.D.S. Girinath (RSPB) 3; K. Priyadharshan (TN) 2 lost to Padmini Rout (Ori) 3; Rahul Sangma (Del) 3 bt M.B. Muralidharan (Ker) 2; Vipul Subhashi (Bih) 2.5 drew with Swapnil Dhopade (Mah) 2.5; Mehar Chinna Reddy (AP) 2 lost to P. Maheswaran (TN) 3; N. Sudhakar Babu (IB) 3 bt Sayantan Das (Ben) 2; Mary Ann Gomes (Ben) 3 bt Debasish Mukherjee (Ben) 2; Himal Gusain (Chand) 2.5 drew with Joydeep Dutta (Ben) 2.5; R. Ramnath Bhuvanesh (TN) 3 bt Anurag Mhamal (Goa) 2; Soumya Thakurta (Ben) 3 bt Ram S. Krishnan (BSNL) 2; Harish Sharma (Del) 2 lost to Anwesh Upadhyaya (Ori) 3; Matta Vinay Kumar (AP) 3 bt Pardeep Arora (Pun) 2; Sanjiv Kumar (Bih) 2 lost to Anup Deshmukh (LIC) 3; Deep Sengupta (PSPB) 2.5 bt Sanjeev Biswas (Chand) 2; Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury (RSPB) 2 drew with Pritam Singh (Jha) 2; G.B. Prakash (IB) 2 drew with Pradeep Pathak (U.P.) 2; Anurag Jaiswal (Ben) 1.5 lost to P. Shyam Nikil (TN) 2.5; Palit Somak (Ben) 2.5 bt Amit Kumar Medda (Jha) 1.5.