Sasi falls to Konguvel swivel

Kunte, with nine points, posed a threat to Sasikiran’s top position till late afternoon as his game against Fide Master TS Ravi was still on. The former National champion’s win could have propelled him to share lead with Sasikiran. However, the game ended in a draw and Sasikiran could keep Kunte half point away from him.

GM Pravin Thipsay (8.5) improved his position by beating GB Prakash (8).

Sasikiran (white) opened with d-pawn against Konguvel. The opening was defended with the King-Indian set-up. Konguvel enjoyed a better position by the 29th move when Sasikiran miscalculated and lost a pawn. On the other hand, Konguvel’s calculations hardlywent wrong. He won the game in the 45th move.

IM Kunte (black) played the Sicilian defence against Fide Master TS Ravi’s e4 opening. Ravi got an isolated d4 pawn. After exchanging queens on the 24th move, Ravi held the advantage, but failed to convert it into a win. The draw was agreed on the 47th move.

Ramesh opted for the Caro-Kann defence in reply to Neelotpal Das’ queen pawn opening. After a short game of 12 moves, they decided to split the point.

Thipsay (white) and Prakash also played a Caro-Kann defence game. On move 31, the veteran GM played an excellent rook move attacking Prakash’s queen and also threatened with a mate. Prakash lost his queen for rook and bishop. Thipsay sealed his rival’s fate after 12 more moves.

IM Verghese Koshy enjoyed a smooth sailing against LIC’s Anup Deshmukh. He opened with the English set-up winning a pawn on move 19. Deshmukh offered his rook in return for bishop on the 25th move, but Koshy avoided immediate seizure. Instead, he regrouped his pieces and capturedthe rook after five moves. Deshmukh, who came under severe time pressure, could not recover from the bad patch. He handed over a full point to ONGC IM on the 41st move.

Tejas Bakre (white) and DV Prasad played a Ruy Lopez game. After a no-win position was reached at the 14th move, both agreed to share the point. Shankar Roy (white) and IM NK Mishra played a brief nine-move draw, while RG Hegde beat SR Rathore. Saha’s blunder on his 25th move cost him a point against IM V Saravanan.

Results (Round 13)

K Sasikiran (10) lost to P Konguvel (7.5), T S Ravi (6.5) drew with Abhijit Kunte (9.5), Neelotpal Das (6) drew with R B Ramesh (9), P M Thipsay (8.5) bt G B Prakash (8), Tejas Bakre (5) drew with D V Prasad (7), S Saha (5.5) lost to V Sarvanan (6.5), V Koshy (5) bt Anup Deshmukh (5), S K Rathod (4) lost to R G Hegde (5), Shankar Roy (4) drew with N K Mishra (5).