Kunte continues to roll as players battle hard

Taking to the board after a day’s rest, Grandmaster Kunte showed a lot of patience using the Advance variation against IM Prakash’s Caro-Kann defence.Prakash tried to activate his quiet opponent playing a gambit. He received good compensation for a pawn forcing Kunte’s pieces into awkward placings.Kunte took his time to undo the initiative and steered clear of all threats. He also gave up an extra pawn but clinched an edge with the exchange of queens.

Having ensured a superior pawn structure Kunte returned to his attacking self in the end-game. The resurgence of Kunte saw Prakash stumble losing acrucial pawn. Kunte’s plan was now almost executed in the rook ending and he tightened the noose forcing the theoretical winning ‘Lucena’ position. Unable to stop a pawn from queening Prakash called it quits on the76th move.

Keen to have another win against his name, Grandmaster Sasikiran showed unwanted aggression against the Modern defence of IM Lanka Ravi only to plunge himself into trouble. Unable to extract advantage from the opening moves, Sasikiran made matters worse by trying to attack n the middle-game and Lanka Ravi took advantage gaining a superior position. Both players, however, entered time trouble and Lanka managed to win a pawn that gavehim an edge in the end-game. That was of little help as Lanka lacked the earlier precision allowing Sasikiran fight back to secure a draw after a long struggle.

Grandmaster Barua’s plans were foiled by a well prepared IM Atanu Lahiri who employed the Kings Indian attack against the French defence. Barua’s hurried bid to take control of the board resulted in Lahiri seizing the advantage. Lahiri appeared well placed but chose not to challenge Barua, who realising that struggle was uphill accepted Lahiri’s offer of draw.

In what was a revelation of IM Ganguly’s maturity the Goodricke Academy player displayed attacking chess to triumph over FM TS Ravi. Ganguly sacrificed a pawn in the opening against Ravi’s Caro-Kann defence to claim a lasting initiative in return. He blocked TS Ravi’s king in the centre tobuild up an attack with great skill.

TS Ravi found it increasingly difficult to provide shelter to the king and Ganguly finally struck with a combination involving a knight sacrifice to rip open the queenside. He then captured huge material to force TS Ravi give up on the 28th move.

The clock continued to be GM Pravin Thipsay’s nemisis. Opting for the Scheveningen variation of Sicilian defence against IM Sarvanan, he approached the 40-move mark (to be completed in two hours) being woefullyshort on time. Thipsay tried to rush but blundered with a rook. Having complicated matters he had little chances of making a come back and resigned on the 44th move.

Fourteen-year-old IM Harikrishna made sure that he stayed afloat in the championship with a creditable win against IM Murugan. Using the English Opening Harikrishna came up with distinct innovative play making the opponent struggle to counter his winning attempts. Harikrishna succeededin breaking Murugan’s defence after a long struggle to emerge victor in 55 moves.

Sriram Jha of LIC foiled whatever hopes young Neelotpal Das (GNCA) may have had outwitting the latter in a Queen’s Indian defence game of 49 moves.Results (round 15): Dibyendu Barua (9.5) drew Atanu Lahiri (5), Abhijit Kunte (12) bt GB Prakash (5.5), Sandipan Chanda (7) drew with Vishal Sareen(6), SS Ganguly (8.5) bt TS Ravi (7.5), P Harikrishna (7.5) bt K Murugan (6), K Sasikiran (10) drew Lanka Ravi (4.5), S Kidambi (5) drew Ravi Hegde(6.5), Sriram Jha (5.5) bt Neelotpal Das (6), V Sarvanan (7.5) bt Pravin Thipsay (7.5), DV Prasad (8) bye.

Game of the DayWhite: Surya Shekhar Ganguly

Black: TS Ravi

1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. Nd2 dxe4 4. Nxe4 Bf5 5. Ng3 Bg6 6. Bc4 e6 7. N1e2 Qh4 8. Bf4 Nd7 9. Qd2 h6 10. Ng1 Bxc2 11. Nf3 Qf6 12. Be5 Qg6 13. O-O Ne7 14. Rac1 Bf5 15. Rfe1 Nb6 16. Nh4 Qh7 17. Nhxf5 Nxc4 18. Qb4 b5 19. Nd6+ Nxd6 20. Bxd6 Nd5 21. Qc5 Rc8 22. Bxf8 Rxf8 23. Ne4 Rc7 24. Nd6+ Kd7 25. Nxb5 Rcc8 26. Nxa7 Ra8 27. Qxc6+ Ke7 28. Qxd5 Ravi resigns.