Railways men and the Airports Authority of India women, seeded two in their sections, recorded vital victories in their pursuit of honours in the National team chess championship here on Friday.
In the seventh round, Railways ‘A' overpowered former champion Air-India 2.5-1.5 in an engaging top-table match to stay in the lead with 13 match-points. In the fifth round of the women's section, AAI proved superior to Petroleum 3-1 to share the lead with Air-India with eight match-points.
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In less than 24 hours, International Master Swapnil Dhopade pulled off an important victory on the fourth board to contribute to Railways' winning tally. The other three boards witnessed even battles. Grandmaster R.R. Laxman was the first to take a draw from S. Satyapragyan on the second board in 22 moves. Before long, the top-board clash between Vikramaditya Kulkarni and GM Tejas Bakre also ended with honours even in 33 moves.
At this time, the Railways camp was eyeing a triumph since Dhopade held a good position against G.B. Joshi on the fourth board and M.S. Thejkumar was clearly better off against K. Priyadharshan.
In the stonewall variation of Dutch Defence, Dhopade capitalised on Joshi's trapped knight and won in 31 moves.
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In the meantime, Priyadharshan recovered some ground against Thejkumar and offered a draw on the 29th move. Thejkumar continued for another 21 moves before the peace-treaty signalled a hard-earned triumph for Railways.
Champion Petroleum, stunned by Railways in the previous round, scored 3.5-0.5 victory over Tamil Nadu ‘A' to stay second. Railways ‘B' which stopped Tamil ‘B' by a similar margin moved to the third place with 11 points.
In the women's section, AAI and Petroleum maintained their joint lead with contrasting triumphs.
AAI, back in the title-hunt due to Petroleum's shock victory over Air-India on Thursday, overpowered the former 3-1 to breathe easy. Petroleum, hugely handicapped by the absence of a reserve player after top-board player S.R. Radha missed her third straight round owing to medication, failed to reproduce the magic that shocked Air-India.
Trailing AAI by two game-points with two rounds to go, Air-India thrashed Tamil Nadu's Chess Gurukul 3.5-0.5. The only hope Air-India has of overtaking AAI's tie-break score is by winning the next two rounds by 4-0 margins. It also wishes that AAI drops at least 2.5 points from eight boards over the next two days.
The results: Open: Seventh round: Air India (10) lost to Railways ‘A' (13) 1.5-2.5 (Tejas Bakre drew with Vikramaditya Kulkarni; S. Satyapragyan drew with R.R. Laxman; K. Priyadarshan drew with M.S. Thejkumar; G.B. Joshi lost to Swapnil Dhopade); Petroleum (12) bt Tamil Nadu ‘A' (9) 3.5-0.5; Railways ‘B' (11) bt Tamil Nadu ‘B'(10) 3.5-0.5; Maharashtra ‘A' (8) lost to Maharashtra ‘B' (10) 1-3; West Bengal (8) lost to Karnataka Hoysalas (10) 1-3; AAI (10) bt Chess is Life (Mah) (8) 1.5-1.5; LIC (8) lost to Bloom Chess Academy (TN) (10) 1.5-2.5; Gujarat (8) drew with Indian Bank (8) 2-2; Team AICF (9) bt Bihar ‘A' (7) 2.5-1.5; Bambolim Chess Club ‘B' (7) lost to Haryana (9) 1.5-2.5.
Women: Fifth round: Petroleum (7) lost to AAI (8) 1-3 (S. R. Radha w/o D. Harika; J. Saranya lost to Mary Ann Gomes; Soumya Swaminathan drew with Kiran Manisha Mohanty; Nisha Mohota drew with A.G. Nimmy); Chess Gurukul (TN) (6) lost to Air India (8) 0.5-3.5; Tamil Nadu (7) bt Bihar (4) 3.5-0.5; LIC (5) drew with Goa ‘A' (3) 2-2; J&K (0) lost to Goa ‘B' (6) 0-4; Bambolim Goa (4) bt Gujarat (2) 4-0.