The Hindu : Sport : Kunte, Sharma steal the thunder

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Apr 18, 2006

Sport

Sport

Kunte, Sharma steal the thunder

V.V. Subrahmanyam

VISAKHAPATNAM: Abhijit Kunte of Indian Oil and D.K. Sharma of Kanpur produced their best in the penultimate round to stun fancied opponents and throw open the National `A' men's chess championship at Swarna Bharathi Indoor Stadium here on Monday.

Kunte shocked defending champion and top-seeded Surya Sekhar Ganguly, while Sharma marred the celebrations of J. Deepan Chakravarthy, who got the confirmation of his GM title from the chief arbiter Prof. R. Anantharam after he crossed the required 2500 Elo points (he had already completed all the three GM norms) in a late evening round on Sunday.

Twist in the tale

Giving another twist to the day's proceedings was GM Sandipan Chanda outplaying Vikramaditya Kamble and the ever-improving Diwakar Prasad Singh of Jharkhand brushing aside the challenge of Abhijeet Gupta in Grunfeld Defence.

At the end of the penultimate round, Deepan hung on to a slender half-a-point lead to be the sole leader with 13.5 points followed by Ganguly, Sandipan Chanda and D.P. Singh with 13 points each. Kunte gives himself an outside chance with 12.5 points by virtue of better progressive score. The afternoon's excitement began with Kunte stunning Ganguly in Sicilian Scheveningen Keres Attack. Once Kunte equalised the game, Ganguly, to avoid repetition of moves, had to sacrifice a piece. But, he faltered, giving up his knight and rook to gain the queen.

Ganguly lost two rooks and a knight for a queen while Kunte too was equal to the task returning the rook for knight. The threat of losing his queen and the failure to promote his pawn saw Ganguly resign.Within minutes of this result, Deepan, who was visibly delighted at Ganguly's loss, himself slipped into a minus against Sharma in a Sicilian Tiannamov Variation.

Getting a slight edge early, Sharma countered white's kingside attack effectively and also saw the opponent exchange the queen on the 16th move. This proved decisive has he soon wrapped up the game in 39 moves.

In the women's championship, WGM Swathi Ghate assured herself of the title by defeating defending champion, Nisha Mohota, in a Carokann Defence, to pick 13.5 points.

Mary Ann Gomes, who will play Ghate on Tuesday, is now second with 12.5 points after her win against J.E. Kavitha in Najdorff Variation.

Even if Mary wins against Swathi, the latter is tipped to clinch the title by virtue of better score in the Koya tie-breaker rule, according to the arbiters.

The results: Men (19th round): D.P. Singh (13) bt Abhijeet Gupta (8.5); Himanshu Sharma (6.5) drew with Sunderrajan Kidambi (10.5); Surya Sekhar Ganguly (13) lost to Abhijit Kunte (12.5); Lanka Ravi (8) drew with Koneru Humpy (12.5); Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury (11) drew with B.S. Sivananda (7); S. Arun Prasad (8) drew with M.R. Venkatesh (12); Arghyadip Das (7) drew with Sriram Jha (6); P.D.S. Girinath (6.5) lost to M.S. Thejkumar (8.5); Vikramaditya Kamble (6) lost to Sandipan Chanda (13); Deepan Chakravarthy (13.5) lost to D.K. Sharma (8); R.B. Ramesh (9) — bye.

Women (18th round): I. Ramyakrishna (7.5) bt Ishwarya Shobana (6.5); Swati Mohota (7.5) bt Alka Das (4); Soumya Swaminathan (5) bt Amruta Mokal (8); Kiran Monisha Mohanty (8.5) drew with Esha Karvade (10.5); J.E. Kavitha (6.5) lost to Mary Ann Gomes (12.5); Swathi Ghate (13.5) bt Nisha Mohota (11); Anupama Gokhale (4) lost to Dronavalli Harika (11.5); Supriya Maji (6.5) drew with S. Meenakshi (11.5); Aarthie Ramaswamy (8.5) lost to S. Vijayalakshmi (11.5); Nimmy George (7.5) — bye.

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