Thipsay finishes clear second

IM Abhijit Kunte 11 drew his game against V Saravanan 10 and tied for the third spot with Prakash. On application of Koya system, Kunte was placed third and Prakash fourth. D V Prasad 10.5 beat T S Ravi to gain the fifth placing. Saravanan won the sixth position. The first six have booked their berths in the Indian squad. D Barua, the winner of the Asian zonal, had already found a place in the National team.

Thipsay, after a weak initial run, needed a win today to clinch the clear second spot. Though, he had booked his place among the first six with a round to go, the determinedveteran proved too strong for the young Air-India player Tejas Bakre. His Ruy Lopez system against Bakre8217;s King pawn opening, won a pawn for him. After exchanging the Bishops, in the rook, bishop and pawns ending, Bakre was a pawn down and had doubled pawns in f-file8217;. After that, the Grandmaster took no time to seal the young rival8217;s fate.

Kunte had a chance to finish as clear third, but he did not succeed in winning from an advantageous position against V Sarvanan. Though he completely outplayed Sarvanan in the Benoni defence, Kunte won a pawn and simplified the position to reach a winning rook and bishop ending. Kunte was wayward in the ending as he lacked an explicit plan. Sarvanan regrouped his pieces and Kunte offered a draw.

TS Ravi lost the Sicilian Alapin variation game to D V Prasad on the 43rd move. RB Ramesh white and P Konguvel played a Sicilian defence game, which ended in favour of Konguvel 10 on the 72nd move. The winner, however, lost his place in the National team to V Saravananafter the tie-break. RB Ramesh 10 was pushed to the seventh place.

Local player Anup Deshmukh 6.5 ended his campaign with a loss to Neelotpal Das 8.5. SK Rathore lost to N K Mishra, while S Saha and R G Hegde split the point. IM V Koshy alos shared the point with Shankar Roy.

The final round results: K Sasikiran 13 drew with G B Prakash 11, Tejas Bakre 6 lost to P M Thipsay 12, Abhijit Kunte 11 drew with V Saravanan 10, T S Ravi 7 lost to D V Prasad 10.5, R B Ramesh 10 lost to P Konguvel 10, Neelotpal Das 8.5 beat Anup Deshmukh 6.5, Suvrajit Saha 7, drew with R G Hegde 6.5, S K Rathore 5 lost to N K Mishra 7, V Koshy 6 drew with Shankar Roy 6.

First six placings: 1 K Sasikiran, 2 P M Thipsay, 3 Abhijit Kunte, 4 G B Prakash, 5 D V Prasad, 6 V Sarvanan

Other placing: 7 P Konguvel, 8 R B Ramesh, 9 N Das, 10 T S Ravi, 11 S Saha, 12 N K Mishra 13 Anup Deshmukh, 14 R G Hegde, 15 Tejas Bakre, 16 V Koshy, 17Shankar Roy and 18 S K Rathore.