Lucky escape for Nisha

AURANGABAD, JULY 19: Eighth seed Suvrajit Shah of Railways blew his chance of a clear win with an ending stage blunder, giving his oppone...

AURANGABAD, JULY 19: Eighth seed Suvrajit Shah of Railways blew his chance of a clear win with an ending stage blunder, giving his opponent, International Women’s Master Nisha Mohota a lucky point which put her among the leaders with 4.5 points after the fifth round of the Rs 2 lakh prize money All-India Open FIDE rating chess tournament at the Marathwada Sanskiritik Mandal Hall, here today.

Nisha, along with IM select Neelotpal Das of Goodrick Chess Academy, IM Lanka Ravi of ONGC, Chennai and SK Rathod of Madhya Pradesh are sharing top position. The other two IMs RB Ramesh of IOC and N Sudhakar Babu have inched towards the leaders, trailing by half a point at second place with IWM elect Swati Ghate of Maharashtra. Second seed Sandeepan Chanda and SS Ganguly, both from GCA, are among 19 others including P Harikrishna of Andhra Pradesh on four points.

It was a battle of fluctuating fortunes for both Suvrajit Shah and Nisha Mohota on the eighth board. Shah (Elo 2354) had a double bishop advantage in theeighth move after the queens were exchanged. But white played two uncharacteristic moves in the 18th and 19th to lose the initiative. However, the IWM from West Bengal threw away her chance of equalising by selecting a wrong move on her next and later lost a knight for two pawns.

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Nisha (Elo 2198), in time trouble, required to make eight moves in four minutes and lost all hope. But to her surprise, Shah having ten minutes on his clock, still played a silly move on the 34th, pushing his rook on `f1′ only to realise that he has handed over the match to black. Nisha, this time making no mistake, played Re7, forcing Shah to resign.

“It was a lucky win form me. I had no hopes victory today after my mistake on the 20th move and the exchange of knight with two pawns later,” said Nisha after her game.

On the top board, Neelotpal Das shared the point with IM Lanka Ravi, after erring in the Queens Gambit opening. Exchanging heavy material in the middle-game, the encounter headed for a forced draw as the boardhad opposite coloured bishops.

While, on the second board, Shankar Roy of Eastern Railways who had jumped into the lead with a win over P Harikrishna yesterday, fought a marathon battle against SK Rathod of Gwalior but could not overcome his initial mistake of capturing the bad bishop of black, which gave Rathod an opening to equalise the two-knight defence and developing his pieces. Rathod was two pawns up when Roy resigned.

IMPORTANT RESULTS (Round 5)

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Neelotpal Das (GCA) 4.5 drew with IM Lanka Ravi (ONGC) 4.5; Shankar Roy (WB) 4 lost to SK Rathod (MP) 4.5; IM RB Ramesh (IOC) 4 drew with SS Ganguly (GCA) 4; P Mahesh Chandra (TN) 4 drew with TS Ravi (TN) 4; RK Mishra (Gwalior) 4 drew with Dinesh Sharma (Del); S Satyapragyan (Ori) 4 drew with Swati Ghate (Mah) 4; Suvrajit Shah (Rlys) 3 lost to IWM Nisha Mohota (WB) 4.5; TV Kartikayan (TN) 3 lost to Sandeepan Chanda (GCA) 4; Dilip Pagay (Mah) 3.5 drew with CS Gokhale (IAL) 3.5; P Mokal (Mah) 3 Lost to Anup Deshmukh (LIC) 4; VS Negi (IAL) 3 lost toIM N Sudhakar Babu (18) 4; N Bhattacharya (WB) 3 lost to P Harkrishna (AP) 4; Ravi Bhave (Mah) 3.5 drew with S Meenakshi (TN) 3.5; S Vijayalakshmi (TN) 3.5 bt Arif Ali 2.5; Laltu Chatterjee (WB) 3 lost to Sashikant Kutwal (Mah) 4.

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