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Ganguly
Wins National A As Top Six Gets Younger
By Arvind Aaron
Surya Sekhar Ganguly of Indian Oil, Kolkata won the National "A"
Championship for the fourth straight time when he played a draw with
Neelotpal Das in the thirteenth and final round at Valsad in Gujarat on
Dec 29.
Ganguly who had won the three earlier occasions at Kozhikode 2003,
Visakhapatnam 2004 and Visakhapatnam 2006 won his title for the first time
by a clear half point margin. The earlier titles were on tie-break and
each time he pushed his room-mate Sandipan Chanda to next place! This time
Chanda did not participate. Ganguly scored 9/13 and was one of the
many undefeated players.
Four new players entered the top six and it includes Gogineni Rohit of
Andhra, G.N.Gopal of Kerala, S.Arun Prasad of Salem, Tamil Nadu and
Suvrajit Saha of Eastern Railway, Kolkata. Also, four of the six
players are teenagers which sounds good for the future of Indian chess.
Only Ganguly (1983-born) and Saha (1976-born) are older. Changes are
happening in the Indian nationals and some of them are fast and clear.
Youth and competition are up. Though the event moved from all play all to
Swiss, draws seem to continue. Many norms and titles were made. Somak
Palit, G.N.Gopal completed their IM titles. Guntur girl Dronavalli Harika
who is the first lady to remain undefeated in a men National A won two
games and drew eleven.
The seven Undefeated players are Ganguly, Deepan Chakkaravarthy, Arun
Prasad, Suvrajit Saha, G.N.Gopal, Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury and Harika.
Harika is on a clear upswing in her career. Those who left the top six are
Chanda, Humpy (both did not play), D.P.Singh and Kunte did not qualify.
Ganguly and Deepan retained their places.
Barua and Thipsay made a big effort to get back in the team but failed in
the end by managing only 1.5/5. Ganguly won five and drew eight and was in
command all through. Deepan and Arun Prasad did not push much at the end
and were happy with their scoring to finish second and third. Ganguly's
fourth title leaves him only behind Manuel Aaron (9) and Thipsay (7) and
he is now ahead of Anand, Barua and Sasikiran who won the Nationals three
times. Top seed Ganguly had an Elo of 2573 and played at 2586 to win the
title.
Significant rating movers were: (positive, top six) Saha, Harika, Palit,
Rohit, Shazuli (after he got the bye he went on a scoring spree!), Mokal.
Top three negative rating drivers were brothers G.B.Prakash, R.B.Ramesh
and D.P.Singh. Koshy (1958-born) was the oldest player and Harika (1991)
was the baby of the tournament.
Click here for final standings
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Published on :
30th
Dec, 2006
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