Chanda on top again

MUMBAI, AUG 27: Sixteen-year-old Sandipan Chanda broke away from the nine-member pack that led the field yesterday to emerge the sole lea...

MUMBAI, AUG 27: Sixteen-year-old Sandipan Chanda broke away from the nine-member pack that led the field yesterday to emerge the sole leader on Friday. Chanda downed Sriram Jha to swell his tally to 7.5 points as the fight for the 13 slots from the National B Chess Championships reached the home stretch at Andheri Sports Complex.

Chanda led the charge of the young brigade as they made a huge impression in the ninth round today. In the lower boards, Ramkrishna Kashelkar, a college student, defeated MB Muralidharan; 14-year-old Arjun Tiwari stunned Shankar Roy and 13-year-old Amar Kamath won against Laltu Chatterjee. Kashelkar and Tiwari are on 6.5 points while Kamath is on six.

On the top board, Chanda used the Tromponsky variation to defeat Jha of LIC in 51 moves while on the second board, Sunddarajan Kidambi drew with Ravi Hegde of Union Bank in 69 moves of Kings Indian Defence.

Draws held centrestage from third to the sixth boards, with Verghese Koshy and TS Ravi playing just seven moves beforeagreeing to split point. In a battle between two precocious youngsters, Neelotpal Das and P Harikrishna drew after just 16 moves.

There is a clutch of players in the second position with seven points. Among the upsets of the day was the defeat of Ponnuswamy Konguvel ONGC, the second seed by Tejkumar of Karnataka; Kashelkar8217;s win over Muralidharan; Tiwari8217;s defeat of Shankar Roy and Kamath8217;s win over Laltu Chatterjee.

In fact, Tiwari has been the story of the tournament so far. The 14-year-old, who practices in the Palande Chess Academy in Aurangabad, Maharashtra, has had some eminent players in his list of scalps 8212; K Vishweshwaran third round, SK Rathod fifth, P Mitrakanth sixth, Shankar Roy ninth and a draw with Gurpreet Pal Singh in the eighth round.

Tejkumar had a King-side attack on Konguvel who went to capture pawns on the queen-side. Tejkumar used his rooks and queen to to trap Konguvel8217;s King.

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Kashelkar played the Gussolimo attack to Muralidharan8217;s Sicilian defence. Kashelkar had agood attack but Muralidharan was defending everything accurately ultil a mistake when Kashelkar was allowed a break on the King side. With Muralidharan facing some time pressure, the rest was easy for Kashelkar.

Rahul Shetty is among the players who is in the second position with 7 points. He defeated Lanka Ravi with the loser virtually offering the game as a gift. From a reverse Benoni set-up, Shetty developed his queen-side pieces. He did not have a plan as Ravi had. Shetty faced tremendous pressure and just when the end seemed inevitable, Ravi unnecessarily entered a tactical battle. In the skirmish, Shetty won a piece and the game when Ravi resigned after 43 moves.

RESULTS

ROUND 9: Sandipan Chanda 7.5 bt Sriram Jha 6.5; Sunddarajan Kidambi 7 drew with Ravi Hegde 7; Surya Shekar Ganguly 7 drew with K Murugan 7; Verghese Koshy 7 drew with TS Ravi 7; Neelotpal Das 6.5 drew with P Harikrishna 7; Sacchidanand Soman 6.5 drew with RB Ramesh 6.5; Lanka Ravi 6.5 lost to Rahul Shetty 7; Shekar Sahu 7bt Atanu Lahiri 6; TV Karthikeyan 6 lost to Anup Deshmukh 7; Sharad Tilak 5.5 lost to Dipanjan Das 7; L Imocha 5.5 lost to Vishal Sareen 6.5; Tejkumar 6.5 bt Ponnuswamy Konguvel 5.5; Subbaraman Vijayalakshmi 6.5 bt Swati Ghate 5.5; Ramkrishna Kashelkar 6.5 bt MB Muralidharan 5.5; Gurpreet Pal Singh 6.5 bt Syed Anwar Shazuli 5.5; Shashikant Kutwal 6 drew S Satyapragyan 6; P Mahesh Chandran 6 drew with Vikas Sharma 6; Shankar Roy 5 lost to Arjun Tiwari 6.5; Laltu Chatterjee 5 lost to Amar Kamath 6.