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BARUA SETS STAGE FOR THRILLING FINISH
V KRISHNASWAMY NEW DELHI, JUNE 14:
DIBYENDU Barua set the stage for a thrilling finish to the 38th edition of the National A Chess championships as he outplayed fellow Kolkattan Surya sekhar Ganguly to join top seed Krishnan Sasikiran at the top of the table with one more round to go in the championships. After 18 rounds, both Barua and Sasikiran have 13 points in the 19-round championships which comes to an end at the CDCS Eventspecific Hall tomorrow.
Interestingly both Barua and Sasikiran clash with Bengal players in the last round. Barua meets Neeloptal Das, while Sasi takes on young Saptarishi Roy. A win for both will tie Barua and Sasikiran and the former could well take his fourth National title on the basis of the tie-breaker. Also Barua beat Sasikiran in their individual match.
As Barua was outwitting Ganguly, Sasikiran watched the action from the sidelines, while sitting out his bye round.
Lying in the third place is Abhijit Kunte, who finished his engagements with 11.5 points and he has a bye in the last round. Neeraj Mishra has 10.5 points in the fourth place and one more game to play, while Ponnuswamy Kongvel, who became the first player to make a GM norm in an Indian National championships, is joint fourth with Ganguly and Harikrishna at 10 points.
In the most eagerly awaited game of the day, Barua had black against Ganguly. The game was particularly important as Barua needed a win to catch up with Sasi and set up a sensational finish to this two week long tournament. In a French defence, which went into the Tarrasch variation, Ganguly did manage to keep his advantage of white piece well past the opening. But in the middle game, an area Barua which thrives in, Ganguly was found wanting. Barua had a strong etxra pawn in the center as he had two pawns in the center to his rival's two. In addition, Ganguly's king was exposed and Barua zeroed in on him and went on to win in 39 moves.
The other interesting clash of the day saw young Pentyala Harikrishna explode against veteran DV Prasad with white pieces. Hari, who has had a fairly low key tournament, outplayed Prasad in just 23 moves of a game that began in the Trompovsky openeing and transposed into the Pirc defence.
The other two games to produce results saw Shekhar Sahu beat Atanu Lahiri and Lanka Ravi lost with white to Siram Jha. Of the four decisive games, three ended in wins for black and only Harikrishna with white succeeded in securing a full point.
With the final stages of the tournament approaching, there was more of a cautious play in view as five of the nine games were drawn. Three of them, ended in draws lasting 12 moves of less.
Results: Krishnan Sasikiran (13) bye Sahu (7.5) lost to Atanu Lahiri (8); Ganguly (10) lost to Barua (13); Thipsay (9) drew with Kunte (11.5); Harikrishna (10) beat DV Prasad (9); Nassir wajih (4) drew with GB Prakash (7.5); K Murugan (7) drew with Neeraj Mishra (10.5); Saptarishi Roy (7) drew with V Savananan (5); Neeloptal Das (6) drew with P Konguvel (10); Lanka avi (8) lost to Sriram Jha (6).
VIJI OVERSTRETCHES AND PAYS THE PENALTY
V KRISHNASWAMY NEW DELHI, JUNE 14:
Subbarman Vijayalakshmi assured of her fourth successive National A chess title went in for an ambitious win agaist Saheli Dhar Barua, in what seemed an attempt to avenge her Colombo defeat in the Asian Zonals. But in the bargain she paid the penalty and suffered her second loss in the championships. Despite the defeat Viji has 9.5 points, which is 1.5 points ahead of he nearest rival, her own younger sister, Meenakshi and Swati Ghate.
Viji, playing with white was engaged in a Queen's Gambit declined. She had some advantage, but it was not enough to get a win. Then under pressure she ceded that advantage and Saheli was slightly better. But Viji overstretched herself and in the process came under time pressure and lost a game she could have drawn.
Playing with black Meenakshi defeated veteran Anupama Gokhale in the 12th round while Swati scored a good win over MR Sangeetha. Meanwhile Bhagyashree Thipsay also came within half a point of the duo with a win ver Dolan Champa Bose with black pieces.
Aarthie Ramaswamy shares the fourth place with Bhagyashree at 7.5 points. Aarthie, who had beaten Viji in one of her earlier matches, won against Saimeera Ravi in a 55-move game from a Ruy Lopez opening.
The 11-year-old prodigy Dronavalli Harika inflicted one more wound on the already suffering Pallavi Shah with a stunning win in 34 moves froma Reti opening. For Pallavi, who only last month won a berth into the World Knockout Championships, it has been a nightmare as she lies last in a field of 14 with three points. Harika has 5.5 points.
The only game to be drawn today was the one between Y Pratibha and Nisha Mohota who split the point from a 32-move game in the Sicilian-Najdorf.
Results of the 13th round: Aarthie Ramaswamy(7.5) beat Saimeera Ravi (4.5); Anupama Gokhale (6) lost to S Meenakshi (8); Swati Ghate (8) beat MR Sangeetha (3.5); Y Pratibha (5) beat Nisha Mohota (6); Drona Harika (5.5) beat Pallavi Shah (3); Dolan Champa Bosa (3.5) lost to Bhagyashree Thipsay (7.5); S Vijayalakshmi (9.5) lost to Saheli Dhar Barua (6.5).
All material © Mark Crowther
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