Shankar shocks Abhijit

By Our Sports Reporter

NEW DELHI, APRIL 22. Second seeded Sriram Jha opted for a quick draw against Saptarshi Chowdhury while the reigning World under- 10 champion Abhijit Gupta was upset by little known Shankar in the sixth round of the NIIT All-India Open Rating Chess Championship here on Sunday. Two rounds were played in the day to compensate for a day's play lost on April 18.

Playing black, Jha (5.5) defended with Sicilian Rossolimo and after a few moves the position was equal. With the competition on the top boards getting keener, ninth seeded Saptarshi (5.5) and Jha agreed for a draw after 14 moves.

The Guwahati-based 23-year-old Shankar (5), who last played in a competitive tournament - junior Nationals - in 1994, cashed on a minor mistake by Abhijit Gupta (4) to give himself a chance to play on the top boards.

Shankar opened with the King Pawn while Abhijit replied with Sicilian Morra Gambit where a temporary pawn in sacrificed. The youngster did well but in the middlegame made a mistake that cost him the bishop. The black king came under attack with white pieces surrounding it. Abhijit lost the queen and resigned on the 21st move.

In other sixth round action, Roktim Bandopadhayay drew with Diwakar Prasad Singh, third seed Nassir Wajih (5) beat B. V. Prakash (4.5) and G. B. Joshi defeated A. Chidananda.

In the fifth round matches played in the morning, Wajih and Tania Sachdev were toppled. Tania lost to Roktim in a Queen's Gambit game while Wajih bowed to S. K. Sinha in a King Indian Defence classical variation. Tania had played a long drawn match against Verghese Koshy as both had come under time pressure last night.

Important results (sixth round): Saptarshi Chowdhury (5.5) drew with Sriram Jha (5.5); Diwakar Prasad Singh (5) drew with Roktim Bandopadhayay (5); Nassir Wazih (5) bt B. V. Prakash (5); G. B. Joshi (5) bt A. Chidananda (4); Gaurav Nangia (4) lost to S. Khedekar (5); Akshay Kumar Jain (5) bt Arvinder Preet Singh (4); Praveen Karnwal (5) bt K. B. L. Srivastava (4); Pramod Kumar Singh (5) bt Devender Saini (4); Rajesh Kumar Nath (4) lost to D. S. Negi (5); Harish Sharma (5) bt S. C. D. Devgun (4); Saket Sharma (5) bt V. Krishnamachari (4); Shankar (5) bt Abhijit Gupta (4); Tania Sachdev (4.5) bt Ravinder Vashisht (3.5); Samarth Modwal (4.5) bt Pranjal Phukan (3.5); Mahesh Kumar Jain (4) drew with S. K. Chetry (4); D. K. Chopra (4.5) bt Santosh Kumar Singh (3.5); D. Lalit Kumar (4.5) bt Suresh Chand (3.5); Parimarjan Negi (4) drew with Himanshu Kumar (4); V. Rajit (4) bt Vinod Khanna (3.5); Mohd. Idris (3) lost to Manoj Mishra (4); Amarnath I. (3) lost to Pawan Kumar (4). (Fifth round): S. Kherdekar (4) lost to S. Satyapragyan (5); Sriram Jha (5) bt G. P. Singh (4); Santosh Kumar Sinha (5) bt Nassir Wajih (4); Suvrojit Saha (4.5) drew with Diwakar Prasad Singh (4.5); Prathmesh Mokal (4.5) drew with P. D. S. Girinath (4.5); Neeraj Kumar Mishra (5) bt Suman Kumar Singh (4); Arvinder Preet Singh (4) lost to Saptarshi Chowdhury (5); Verghese Koshy (4) drew with Rajesh Kumar (4.5); Vinod Khanna (3.5) lost to Vishal Sareen (4.5); Roktim Bandopadhayay (4.5) bt Tania Sachdev (3.5); Abhijit Gupta (4) drew with Akshay Kumar Jain (4); V. S. Negi (4.5) bt Ajit Kumar Verma (3.5); B. V. Prakash (4.5) bt Avinash Sethi (3.5); Pradeep Pathak (3.5) lost to Samunder Kumar Girsa (3.5); Vedant Goswami (3.5) drew with Sukhpal Singh Khalsi (4); Karan Bhatti (3) lost to G. B. Joshi (4); Khakhai Zou (3) lost to Surender Kumar (4); K. B. L. Srivastava (4) bt Kapil Gupta (3); Manoj Mishra (3) lost to K. C. Joshi (4); R. K. Gupta (3) lost to Pramod Kumar Singh (4); Rajeev V. M. (3) lost to Sudhir Kumar Sinha (4); Jayalakshmi (4) bt Rahul Kumar Mangalore (3); Rajesh Kumar (3) lost to Chander Pal (4); D. S. Negi (4) bt Krishnamurthy (3); Rama Rao (3) lost to Harish Sharma (4); Rani Khanna (4) bt Mohd. Idris (3); Sandeep Chitkara (3) lost to Saket Sharma (4); Sanjeev Ghosh (4) bt V. Rajit (3); Biswajit Roy Chowdhury (4) bt Mukesh Mandloi (3); C. L. Sharma (3.5) drew with Prem Chug (3.5); Milind Gowde (4) bt Prabhu Das (3); V. Krishnamachari (4) bt Amarnath I. (3); Ishmeet Singh (3) lost to Praveen Karnwal (4); Varun Rajgarhia (3) lost to Updesh Sharma (4).

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