Awesome Kunte surges ahead

In the 12th round, Kunte outplayed 36-year-old International Master K Murugan of Neyveli Lignite Corporation in 69 moves.

It wasn’t the same, however, for top-ranked Grandmaster Dibyendu Barua, who suffered a blow being held to a draw by Fide Master TS Ravi. The 33-year-oldTata Steel officer from Assam has eight points and like Kunte, is yet to get a bye in the round-robin tournament in which 19 players are putting their cerebral skills to test.

Krishnan Sasikiran (PSCB), who also became a Grandmaster along with Kunte, became a victim of his own mistakes as he allowed GM Pravin Thipsay (PSCB) to make miraculous escape. The draw left Sasikiran placed third with 7.5 points.

It was an easy outing for GM Kunte, who employed Nimzo-Indian game with black pieces. He blocked an isolated pawn of Murugan in the middle-game that left the latter look for defensive moves.

Building up an attack in the end-game, Kunte sacrificed his rook for a bishop and two pawns that established a powerful passed pawn on a2 that leftMurugan’s rook useless. Kunte advanced his pawns from the other wing and in atactical ploy gave up the passed a2 pawn to obtain two passed pawns on the kingside. Being threatened from all sides, Murugan had little option but to quit on the 69th move.

Sticking to his usual style, FM TS Ravi had little difficulty in holding GM Barua. Ravi obtained good position with the white pieces against Barua’s Petroff Defence and that prevented Barua from developing any initiative. Ravi’s strong defence forced Barua to propose a draw after only 18 moves.

In an interesting battle of Grandmasters, Thipsay made a miraculous escape against Sasikiran. Having made a mess of of the Ruy Lopez Open Variation, Thipsay was worse in the middle-game. Forcing Thipsay to give up an exchange Sasikiran entered a winning end-game. But surprisingly he made the win more difficult to get with false moves. He made a grave error on the 57th move that saw Thipsay make a come back. In the end, Sasikiran was left with a lone pawn against Thipsay’s knight and he chose for a draw on the 74th move.

IM DV Prasad (PSCB) came back into the reckoning with a superb victory over IM Elect Vishal Sareen (LIC) using his formidable attacking skills.

Sareen went for the Rossolimo Attack against the Sicilian Defence but Prasad sacrificed an excellent pawn in the middlegame and drove Sareen’s king awayfrom safety of the castled position by sacrificing a knight. Prasad later assaulted the helpless king using his well co-ordinated pieces and Sareen surrendered on the 29th move.

Young International Master P Harikrishna of Wipro — in search of a Grandmaster norm — suffered a reversal losing to IM Neelotpal Das of Goodricke Academy.

Harikrishna overlooked a tactical shot that saw Das curb all counter-play to win by virtue of extra material.

IM Ravi Hegde played in spectacular style against IM Surya Sekhar Ganguly (GNCA)but had to settle for a draw after a perpetual check.

IM Sandipan Chanda (GNCA) downed IM Lanka Ravi (PSCB) in an attacking game that lasted 50 moves while IM V Saravanan (PSCB) surprised S Kidambi of Tamil Nadu with a prepared variation in the Caro-Kann winning in 44 moves.

Results (Round 12): V Sarvanan (5.5) bt S Kidambi (4.5), Pravin Thipsay (6) drew K Sasikiran (7.5), Neelotpal Das (5) bt P Harikrishna (5.5), Ravi Hegde (5) drew SS Ganguly (6), Lanka Ravi (4) lost toSandipan Chanda (5.5), K Murugan (5) lost to Abhijit Kunte (9.5), TS Ravi (6.5) drew Dibyendu Barua (8), Vishal Sareen (5) lost to DV Prasad (6.5), GBPrakash (5) lost to Atanu Lahiri (4).

Game of the day

White: Vishal Sareen Black: DV Prasad

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 e6 4. Bxc6 bxc6 5. b3 d6 6. O-O e5 7. h3 g6 8. c3 Bg7 9. Re1 Ne7 10. Bb2 f5 11. d4 cxd4 12. cxd4 fxe4 13. Rxe4 Bf5 14. Re1 e4 15. Ng5 d5 16. f3 O-O 17. fxe4 dxe4 18. Nxe4 Nd5 19. Nbd2 Nf4 20. Nf3 Bxe4 21. Rxe4 Qd5 22. Re3 Rae8 23. Rxe8 Rxe8 24. Kf2 Qb5 25. Kg3 Re2 26. Kxf4 Rxg2 27. Ne5 Qd5 28. Ke3 Rxb2 29. Qf3 Bh6+ 0-1 White resigns.