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Commonwealth
Chess Championship 2006
By
Mr.Praful Zaveri
Two-Way Race For The
Title
The race for the title
of the LIC/ONGC/MTNL sponsored Commonwealth Chess Championship 2006, being
held at Eskay Resorts – Borivali has taken a fast lane with the both he
overnight leaders, top-seeded and defending champion, Nigel Short of
England and IM M.R. Venkatesh of India winning their respective encounters
and keep their lead intact with a score of 6.5/7 in the field of 168
players.
On the top board,
Nigel Short, playing white, opted for the closed variation of the Sicilian
defense. The development was on an equal footing with chances for both the
sides. But also of a sudden, Nigel got the opportunity as Deepan blundered
his Knight to by allowing the pin. He resigned instantly on the 43rd
move.
On the 2nd
board, the game between GM Neelotpal Das and IM M.R. Venkatesh was a
Sicilian Svenishkov variation. The higher rated GM Neelotpal Das
sacrificed his Rook for a Knight. However, the compensation was not
sufficient. Venkatesh strengthened the grip on the game by creating a
dangerous passed pawn on ‘b’ file. This tied up the defense of white and
two Rooks of black created multiple threats. White resigned on move 55
when faced with heavy material loss.
On the 3rd
board, GM Sandipan Chanda edged out the more experienced veteran GM
Dibyendu Barua in a French Defense opening in a hard fought 60 moves to
remain in close heels of the leader. He is occupying the sole 2nd
spot with 6/7 points
Three players with a
score of 5.5/7, GM Abhijit Kunte, IM Himanshu Sharma and WGM S.
Vijayalakshmi are jointly in the 3rd position. IM Himanshu
prevailed over IM Abhijeet Gupta, who suffered his 2nd
consecutive defeat and WGM Vijayalakshimi, who is also holding the title
of men’s IM beat her compatriot, WGM Swati Ghate to remain in the hunt for
top positions.
Key Results of Round 7 (with Ratings & Country):
1 GM
Short Nigel D 2677 ENG 6½ Beat 5 GM Deepan Chakkravarthy J 2501 IND, 2 GM
Neelotpal Das 2490 IND 5 Lost to 6½ IM Venkatesh M R 2466 IND, 3 GM
Sandipan Chanda 2550 IND 6 Beat 5 GM Barua Dibyendu 2471 IND, 4 GM Kunte
Abhijit 2524 IND 5½ Beat 5 IM Arun Prasad S 2424 IND, 5 IM Sriram Jha 2396
IND 5 Drew with 5 GM Ramesh R B 2491 IND, 6 IM Himanshu Sharma 2387 IND 5½
Beat 4½ IM Gupta Abhijeet 2481 IND, 7 Das Arghyadip 2373 IND 5 Drew with
5 IM Sundararajan Kidambi 2451 IND, 8 IM Vijayalakshmi Subbaraman 2424 IND
5½ Beat 4½ WGM Swathi Ghate 2385 IND, 9 Sethuraman S P 2329 IND 5 Drew
with 5 IM Roy Chowdhury Saptarshi 2423 IND, 10 IM Babu N Sudhakar 2290 IND
5 Drew with 5 IM Prakash G B 2403 IND, 11 GM Rahman Ziaur 2544 BAN 4½ Drew
with 5 IM Gokhale Chandrashekhar 2375 IND, 12 GM Ganguly Surya Shekhar
2573 IND 5 Beat 4 IM Prathamesh Sunil Mokal 2335 IND, 13 GM Thipsay
Praveen M 2494 IND 5 Beat 4 Palit Somak 2306 IND, 14 GM Wu Shaobin 2475
SIN 5 Beat 4 Shyam Nikil P 2301 IND, 15 WGM Harika Dronavalli 2353 IND
4½ Drew with 4½ GM Murshed Niaz 2461 BAN, 16 WGM Meenakshi S 2347 IND 4½
Drew with 4 GM Bakre Tejas 2447 IND, 17 Akshayraj Kore 2429 IND 4½ Drew
with 4 WGM Ramaswamy Aarthie 2228 IND, 18 Rathnakaran K 2422 IND 5 Beat
4 Swapnil S Dhopade 2209 IND, 19 IM Satyapragyan Swayangsu 2415 IND 5
Beat 4 Van Den Heever Donovan 2142 RSA, 20 WGM Karavade Eesha 2321 IND
4½ Drew with 4 Gopal G N 2397 IND
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Published on 27.11.2006
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