The lead remained status quo, with Abhijeet Gupta keeping his numero uno position in the penultimate round of the 49th National Premier Chess Championship, organised by Marathawada Chess Association at MIT, Aurangabad today.
GN Gopal’s defeat at the hands of Vidit Santosh Gujrati of Maharashtra made things turning topsy turvy, Deeapn Chakkaravarthy alone having a chance to catch Abhijeet at the top. A draw in the final round is likely to fetch the title to Abhijeet.
Deep Sengupta of West Bengal fought fiercely in the Max Lange variation of Scotch game against the leader Abhijeet. After exchanging the queens on 18th move, Deep enjoyed a slight advantage with two extra pawns. In the resulting opposite colour bishop ending, the three connected pawns and an outside passer could not generate a win for Deep, as Abhijeet defended accurately. The game petered out into a draw after 89 moves.
Deep Sengupta failed to cash on the extra two pawns against leader Abhijeet
In the advanced variation of Caro Kann defence, Vidit Santosh Gujrathi of Maharashtra dealt a blow to GN Gopal’s intention of keeping at least the runner up spot he gained last year. After exchanging the queens on 17th move, Vidit moved his pieces slowly into the opponent’s territory. Especially, his f- pawn was a menace to Gopal and he tried all his resources to stop it. Vidit drove Gopal’s king away by skillful moves and posted a victory on 49th move.
Extra pawn in a same colour bishop ending does not always win. It was amply demonstrated, when GM Arun Prasad of PSPB frustrated his friend Deepan of TN to get away with a draw in a 55 moves hard fought English opening game.
SP Sethuraman of TN also made some futile attempts to win with the extra pawn he had in a same colour bishop ending of a Reti opening transposed to English. His opponent, former champion Abhijit Kunte’s experience paid off to extricate half a point.
Vidit stunned Gopal to improve his chances
IM Shyam Nikhil of TN recovered from the two losses he suffered in the last two rounds, to outwit out of form Neelotpal Das of PSPB. Shyam carved out a win in 75 moves, with the two extra pawns he had on board in a game arising out of Nimzo Indian defence.
Seven times champion Praveen Thipsay defeated IM Ashwin Jayaram of Tamil Nadu convincingly in the Najdorf variation of Sicilian defence adopted by the latter. Thipsay had two pawns in compensation for the bishop he had against Ashwin’s rook in the ending. Ashwin resigned, when Praveen threatened to queen either of his b- or d- pawn.
Everybody expected a display of pyrotechnics in the clash between the 2010 and 2009 champions Parimarjan Negi and B Adhiban, both from PSPB. But, the Sicilian defence fizzled out into a draw, after 43 fighting moves.
Indian Airlines’ GM Tejas disposed off former under 10 world champion Girish Kowshik of Karnataka. With two connected pawns in a rook and pawns ending, Tejas held the upper hand ruining the chances of an IM norm to Girish.
In the final round, the top two seeds Abhijeet and Negi meet each other and Deepan will face Vidit.
Education Minister of Maharashtra Government Honourable Rajendra Darda will distribute the prizes and Mr. Sathish Chauhan, MLC will preside.
R. Anantharam, International Arbiter
Round 12 standings:
1 GM Gupta Abhijeet 2625 – 9
2 GM Deepan Chakkravarthy J 2470 – 8.5
3 GM Sethuraman S P 2529 – 8
4 IM Vidit Santosh Gujrathi 2508 – 8
5 GM Gopal G N 2572 – 7.5
6 IM Shyam Nikil P 2418 – 7.5
7 IM Venkatesh M R 2479 – 7.5
8 GM Arun Prasad S 2522 – 7.5
9 GM Kunte Abhijit 2528 – 7.5
10 GM Sengupta Deep 2572 – 7.5
11 GM Bakre Tejas 2507 – 7
12 GM Negi Parimarjan 2631 – 7
13 GM Adhiban B 2551 – 7
14 GM Thipsay Praveen M 2433 – 7
15 GM Sundararajan Kidambi 2474 – 7
16 GM Sriram Jha 2410 – 6.5
17 WGM Padmini Rout 2356 – 6.5
18 IM Ashwin Jayaram 2473 – 6.5
19 IM Shyam Sundar M 2457 – 6.5
20 G Akash 2239 – 6.5
21 IM Satyapragyan Swayangsu 2415 – 6.5
22 GM Neelotpal Das 2458 – 6.5
23 IM Murali Krishnan B T 2366 – 6.5
24 IM Kulkarni Vikramaditya 2449 – 6.5
25 IM Karthikeyan P 2408 – 6
26 IM Babu N Sudhakar 2319 – 6
27 FM Girish A Koushik 2379 – 5.5
28 IM Saptarshi Roy 2385 – 5.5
29 IM Swapnil S Dhopade 2411 – 5.5
30 IM Lalith Babu M R 2495 – 5.5
31 IM Rathnakaran K 2386 – 5.5
32 GM Laxman R R 2451 – 5.5
33 FM Ghosh Diptayan 2288 – 5.5
34 Shashikant Kutwal 2300 – 5.5
35 IM Suvrajit Saha 2384 – 5.5
36 Udeshi Aditya 2379 – 5
37 IM Narayanan Srinath 2336 – 5
38 IM Himanshu Sharma 2421 – 5
39 Krishna C R G 2317 – 5
40 IM Sharma Dinesh K 2361 – 5
41 IM Koshy Varugeese 2279 – 4.5
42 IM Deshmukh Anup 2312 – 4.5
43 WGM Swathi Ghate 2278 – 4
44 IM Konguvel Ponnuswamy 2384 – 4
45 IM Sangma Rahul 2385 – 4
46 Tiwari Arjun 2324 – 4
47 WGM Soumya Swaminathan 2318 – 4
48 Ravi Teja S 2300 – 3.5
49 IM Lahiri Atanu 2361 – 1
Round 13 pairings:
GM Gupta Abhijeet 2625 – GM Negi Parimarjan 2631
IM Vidit Santosh Gujrathi 2508 – GM Deepan Chakkravarthy J 2470
IM Shyam Nikil P 2418 – GM Sethuraman S P 2529
GM Kunte Abhijit 2528 – GM Sengupta Deep 2572
GM Arun Prasad S 2522 – IM Venkatesh M R 2479
GM Adhiban B 2551 – GM Gopal G N 2572
GM Sundararajan Kidambi 2474 – GM Bakre Tejas 2507
IM Shyam Sundar M 2457 – GM Thipsay Praveen M 2433
IM Ashwin Jayaram 2473 – WGM Padmini Rout 2356
IM Satyapragyan Swayangsu 2415 – GM Neelotpal Das 2458
IM Kulkarni Vikramaditya 2449 – GM Sriram Jha 2410
IM Murali Krishnan B T 2366 – G Akash 2239
IM Karthikeyan P 2408 – IM Babu N Sudhakar 2319
IM Lalith Babu M R 2495 – Shashikant Kutwal 2300
GM Laxman R R 2451 – IM Suvrajit Saha 2384
FM Ghosh Diptayan 2288 – IM Swapnil S Dhopade 2411
FM Girish A Koushik 2379 – IM Rathnakaran K 2386
IM Himanshu Sharma 2421 – IM Saptarshi Roy 2385
Udeshi Aditya 2379 – Krishna C R G 2317
WGM Soumya Swaminathan 2318 – IM Sharma Dinesh K 2361
IM Narayanan Srinath 2336 – WGM Swathi Ghate 2278
Tiwari Arjun 2324 – IM Koshy Varugeese 2279
Ravi Teja S 2300 – IM Deshmukh Anup 2312
IM Sangma Rahul 2385 – IM Konguvel Ponnuswamy 2384
IM Lahiri Atanu 2361 – not paired
