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Record New
Qualifiers Likely
By Arvind Aaron
Press Officer - AICF
Qualifying spirit continued to dominate the twelfth round of the National
B on Sep 9. Draws on the top nine tables returned and Lanka Ravi of ONGC,
Hyderabad maintained his top position with 9.5/12. Himanshu Sharma of
Haryana kept the second place with nine points. These two players are
certain of qualifying. The battle for the remaining 28 places is on.
With the goal posts of the qualifying numbers widened by more than 200%,
at least eight new qualifiers are likely to make it to the National A. The
third place is occupied by 21 players with 8.5 points and all of them
except Sudhir Sinha are expected to play draws and earn National A berths.
Sinha is floated down to meet Arghyadip Das (8) in a do-or-die battle.
Like is the case of all the eight pointers facing each others. Do-or-die
fighting will prevail on these twelve boards featuring eight pointers.
Looking at the trend, all the nine pointers are likely to make
it to the next grade. In the event of their making final round
draws, the new qualifiers should include Somak Palit (Ben), Deep
Sengupta (Jha), Poobesh Anand (TN), Valay Parikh (Guj), Swapnil Dhopade,
R.R.Laxman (TN), D.Harika (AP), Aswin Jayaram (TN).Qualifying
will dominate the Rs.137,000 prize fund. For the second time since the
Nagpur National B of 2001, two women are set to qualify for the premier
men's event. Swati Ghate and D.Harika are sure to qualify provided they
agree to the customary quick draws. Thirty players will move to the
National A. Draws in the penultimate round was so common that only four of
the top 20 boards saw decisive results. In these, G.Rohit of Andhra
Pradesh upset M.B.Muralidharan of Kerala, Abhishek Das beat Saptarshi Roy.
IM Varugeese Koshy and Swapnil Dhopade ended the chances of Ram Prakash
and Eesha Karavade. All these winners are well placed to qualify.
The event was organised by the Bobby Fischer Chess Club at the Karnavati
Club. Lunch is bring provided to all the players on Sep 10 after which the
prizes will be distributed by the Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra
Modi.
Success of the National B depends on the number of new qualifiers.
Widening of the numbers from 14 to 30 is set to double the joy of
those who made it. Sunday Sep 10 is going to be that memorable day for
most new qualifiers as Lanka Ravi is expected to lock in on the title for
the first time.
Published on : 09.09.2006
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