Tags:
Journalism of Courage
MUMBAI, May 15: K Vishweshwaran of Tamil Nadu went one point clear 8 of the field and moved closer to the title when he defeated G B Prakash in the ninth round of the International Rating Chess Tournament at the Andheri Complex here today.
P Mitrakanth, TS Ravi of Indian Oil, N Sudhakar Babu of Indian Bank, Roktim Bandopadhyay and his West Bengal colleague Sandipan Chanda are in the second position with seven points each.
Vishweshwaran now needs just one point from remaining two rounds to win the tournament. Considering the form he is in, it does not seem to be a difficult task for him.
Prakash, playing black, was saddled with a c6 pawn which was supported by a bishop, creating a weakness for his. Vishweshwaran8217;s chances of winning the game depended on whether he could exchange all the pieces. He did so well and kept the same coloured bishops and won after 58 moves.
On the second board, P Mitrakanth won against Gurpreet Pal Singh in 51 moves.
Pankaj Joshi of Western Railway was in some strifeagainst Sriram Jha of LIC. But Joshi neutralised Jha8217;s advantage and steered the game into a knight ending and the players agreed to split points after 41 moves.
TS Ravi of Indian Oil was in similar position like Joshi. Avinash Awate, his opponent, was in a definite plus position with Ravi facing time pressure. But Awate allowed Ravi to combine his pieces, exchanged his queen for a rook and a minor piece, lost a further piece and resigned after 35 moves.
In an interesting result, Swati Ghate 6.5 held Chandrashekar Gokhale to a draw.
RESULTS
Ninth round: K Vishweshwaran 8 bt GB Prakash 6.5; P Mitrakanth 7 bt Gurpreet Pal Singh 6; Sriram Jhan 6.5 drew with Pankaj Joshi 6.5; TS Ravi 7 bt Avinash Awate 6; Jayant Gokhale 6 lost to N Sudhakar Babu 7; Ravindra Dongre 6 lost to Roktim Bandopadhyay 7; Sandipan Chanda 7 bt Sachidananda Soman 6; Enamul Hussain 6 lost to J Venkatramana 6; Swati Ghate 6 drew with CS Gokhale 6; Deepanjan Das 6 drew with Rahul Shetty 6; S Ganeshan 6.5 bt 5.5; AmitkumarMedda 5 lost to N Sanjay 6; Saheli Dhar 6 bt Joydev Saha 5; Sashikant Kutwal 5 lost to N Neelakanthan 6; Snehal Shah 5.5 drew with C Natarajan 5.5; G Srikanth 5.5 drew with Manthan Choksi 5.5.
