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| Ganguly
Scores Three Wins in A Row |
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Ganguly Scores Three Wins In A Row
Those in the top of the table made further headway in the eighth round of the 43rd GVMC National `A' Chess Championship being played at the Swarna Bharathi Stadium in Visakhapatnam on April 8. Defending champion Surya S Ganguly of Indian Oil, Kolkata scored his third victory in a row to move to joint second place.
Humpy leads with 6.5 points from seven games while Ganguly and J.Deepan Chakkaravarthy of Tamil Nadu are on six points from eight games in joint second place.
Asked about his third straight victory, Ganguly said, "I have no choice. Humpy is incredible. I dont see who can stop her. We meet her only in the end of the event. Tomorrow, Chanda v Humpy will be crucial," said Ganguly. Ganguly trooped his rook inside to destroy the defences of Girinath and win quite handily.
Although firmly in the saddle, Humpy did not let go her opponent. In a queen's gambit with the white pieces, she created a passed queen pawn to win a queen and rook ending against Dinesh Kumar Sharma of LIC, Kanpur. If Humpy can maintain this splendid showing it will break a number of records.
Grandmasters Kunte, Chanda also played well to win. Kunte played a novelty with his queen to win his first game and it coincided with Ramesh's first defeat. Chanda also handed Sivanandan his first defeat after turning down a draw offer. "The position was in balance. I was short of time. I took risk and it paid off," said Chanda about his victory.
Deepan benefited by capturing an advanced pawn of Abhijeet Gupta and used that extra pawn to win the game. The Madurai international master showed technique by checkmating with his bishop and knight against the lone king.
Contrary to the events of the men's section, the leaders in the women's section fared poorly. Overnight leader Swati Ghate of LIC, Pune let Swati Mohota's bishop off the cage to lose a valuable point in the seventh round. Despite the second defeat in a row, Swati Ghate is leading with five points from seven games.
L.Ishwarya Shobana of Tamil Nadu joined Mary Ann Gomes of Kolkata in the second place on 4.5 points after scoring an easy looking upset victory over WGM Aarthie Ramesh of Indian Airlines, Chennai. Mary Ann Gomes was defeated by defending champion Nisha Mohota.
Vijayalakshmi sacrificed two pieces for a rook on the 26th move to surprise Alka Das in the middlegame and win in 38 moves using advanced pawns. After playing the tough bend of the pairing cycle, defending champion Nisha Mohota trapped the queen of Mary Ann Gomes to win easily in 30 moves. In a surprise of this round, L.Ishwarya Shobana of Salem shocked woman grandmaster Aarthie Ramesh when the latter overlooked a deadly knight check on the 22nd move and lost a little later.
Twelve rounds remain to be played in the women's section and 13 rounds remain in the men's event. The closing ceremony is slated for April 18.
The results:
Men round 8:
D.P.Singh (Jha) 5/8 bt Sriram Jha (LIC) 2/7,
M.R.Venkatesh (PSPB) 5/7 drew M.S.Thejkumar (Kar) 3/7,
B.S.Sivanandan (Kar) 3/7 lost to Sandipan Chanda (PSPB) 4/7,
Koneru Humpy (AP) 6.5/7 bt Dinesh Kumar Sharma (LIC) 2/8,
Abhijit Kunte (PSPB) 4/7 bt R.B.Ramesh (PSPB) 4/8,
Abhijeet Gupta (Raj) 3.5/8 lost to J.Deepan Chakkaravarthy (TN) 6/8,
Himanshu Sharma (Har) 3/8 drew Vikramaditya Kamble (Mah) 3/8,
Surya S Ganguly (PSPB) 6/8 bt P.D.S.Girinath (AP) 1.5/8,
Lanka Ravi (PSPB) 2/8 lost to Arghyadip Das (Ben) 3.5/8,
Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury (Ben) 5/8 drew S.Arun Prasad (TN) 3.5/8,
Sundararajan Kidambi (PSPB) 4.5/7 - bye.
Women round 7:
J.E.Kavitha (TN) 3/7 bt Soumya Swaminathan (Mah) 1/6,
Swati Ghate (LIC) 5/7 lost to Swati Mohota (Ben) 3/6,
Anupama Gokhale (PSPB) 2.5/7 drew I.Ramyakrishna (AP) 3.5/6,
Supriya Maji (Ben) 2/7 lost to Nimmy George (Ker) 4/7,
Aarthie Ramesh (TN) 2.5/7 lost to L.Ishwarya Shobana (TN) 4.5/7,
S.Vijayalakshmi (TN) 4/7 bt Alka Das (Jha) 3/7,
S.Meenakshi (TN) 3.5/6 bt Amruta Mokal (Mah) 3/7,
Dronavalli Harika (AP) 3.5/6 bt Eesha Karavade (Mah) 3.5/7,
Nisha Mohota (PSPB) 3/6 bt Mary Ann Gomes (Ben) 4.5/7,
Kiran Monisha Mohanty (Ori) 4/6 - bye.
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