Almost everything that could possibly go wrong with Railways ‘A’ team’s title-campaign went wrong on Saturday.
An unexpected 2-2 draw with Tamil Nadu ‘B’ may have left the Railwaymen’s unbeaten record intact but it significantly helped Petroleum nose ahead in the title-race of the National team chess championship here on Sunday.
Petroleum, beaten by Railways ‘A’ on Thursday, thrashed Railways ‘B’ 3.5-0.5 in the eighth and penultimate round to share the lead at 14 match-points. By virtue of having a superior aggregate of game-points over Railways ‘A’, Petroleum look good to retain the title.
In the ladies section, Airports Authority of India looks set to dethrone Air India. Both teams have 10 mach-points but AAI enjoys a 1.5-point advantage on game-points.
Considering Railways ‘B’ had beaten Tamil Nadu ‘B’ 3.5-0.5 in the previous round, Railways ‘A’ was expected to post an emphatic win.
Needing to win the last two rounds to keep Petroleum at bay, Railways ‘A’ got it wrong much before the start of action on Saturday.
Skipper Vikramaditya Kulkarni committed a faux pass by forgetting to give the board-order of play to the Chief Arbiter before the 10 pm deadline on Friday. This meant Railways ‘A’ had to field the first four players, in that order, and leave out in-form Swapnil Dhopade who scored 6.5 points from seven rounds. As a result, barring Kulkarni, the other three players did not prepare with the colours they eventually played on Saturday.
Over the table, the Railwaymen were looking good to win until things went dramatically wrong. Thejkumar blundered against P. Phoobalan and lost. This put pressure on Kulkarni to play for a win in a position where he could have easily taken a draw against Praveen Kumar. The desperation saw Kulkarni’s position crumble in a flash and Tamil Nadu was up 2-0.
Thereafter, Railways won the remaining two boards with R. R. Laxman pressing home the advantage of an extra pawn to win on the third board while Arghyadip Das converted his superiority into a vital point on the second board to force a 2-2 deadlock.
Petroleum’s all-Grandmaster team seized the opportunity to catch up with Railways ‘A’ at the top.
B. Adhiban, S. Arun Prasad and Deep Sengupta won, in that order, before skipper K. Sasikiran agreed to draw against Akshat Khamparia.
In the ladies section, one-sided matches dominated the proceedings with contenders AAI beating Tamil Nadu 3.5-0.5 and Air India thrashing Goa 4-0. Playing with three players, Petroleum managed to hold LIC 2- 2 in the only close tie of the day.
The results:
Open (eighth round): Tamil Nadu ‘B’ (11) drew with Railways ‘A’ (14) 2-2 (C. Praveen Kumar bt Vikramaditya Kulkarni, M. Kunal lost to Arghyadip Das; Syed Anwar Shazuli lost to R. R. Laxman; P. Phoobalan bt M. S. Thejkumar); Railways ‘B’ (11) lost to Petroleum (14) 0.5-3.5 (Akshat Khamparia drew with K. Sasikiran; Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury lost to S. Arun Prasad; Saptarshi Roy lost to B. Adhiban; K. Ratnakaran lost to Deep Sengupta); Karnataka Hoysalas (10) lost to Air India (12) 1.5-2.5; Maharashtra ‘B’ (12) bt AAI (10) 3.5-0.5; Bloom Chess Academy (10) lost to Team AICF (11) 1.5-2.5; Tamil Nadu ‘A’ (11) bt Kerala (9) 3-1; Haryana (9) lost to Indian Bank (10) 1-3; LIC (10) bt Innovators Chess Academy (Kar) (8) 2.5-1.5; Madhya Pradesh ‘A’ (8) lost to Maharashtra ‘A’ (10) 2.5-1.5; Goa ‘A’ (9) drew with West Bengal (9) 2-2.
Women (sixth round): AAI (10) bt Tamil Nadu (7) 3.5-0.5; Air India (10) bt Goa ‘B’ (6) 4-0; Petroleum (8) drew with Chess Gurukul (TN) (7) 2-2; Bambolim Chess Club (Goa) (4) lost to LIC (7) 0-4; Bihar (6) bt J&K (0) 4-0; Gujarat (2) lost to Goa ‘A’ (3) 0-4.
Leading pairings for the final round:
Open: Petroleum-Maharashtra ‘A’; Railways ‘A’-Tamil Nadu ‘A’; Air India-Tamil Nadu ‘B’; Women: LIC-Air India; Gujarat-AAI; J&K-Petroleum.
