Sasikiran hangs on to
solitary point lead

Top seed Krishnan Sasikiran of PSCB held on to his one point lead with a comprehensive victory over International Master Konguvel in the 17th round of the 38th National men's 'A' chess championship in Delhi on Wednesday.

Sasikiran has 13 points but Grandmaster Dibyendu Barua of Tata Steel, with 12 points, is still within striking distance with an extra game in hand.

Thursday will be a crucial day for Barua as he takes on IM Surya Shekhar Ganguly of PSCB with black pieces.

A full point behind Barua is GM Abhijit Kunte of PSCB and following him closely are Ganguly and IM Neeraj Kumar Mishra of Tata Steel with 10.5 points each to their credit.

The 20-year-old Sasikiran was at his technical best against GM-norm holder Konguvel in the Ruy Lopez opening. Playing black, Sasikiran got an easy equality by charging on the queenside and the pair of rooks got exchanged in tandem.

The resulting position was balanced but, resourceful as he is, Sasikiran spurned down the truce proposal on the 32nd move and opened the kingside to exert pressure.

Konguvel made the decisive error on the 40th move that allowed Sasikiran to invade the opposition territory. Konguvel called it a day after 42 moves.

Barua made it look easy in the Tarrasch variation of the French defence and scored over IM Lanka Ravi of PSCB. It was an unusual play by Lanka that got him into difficulties right in the opening and he lost a pawn. Barua walked his king to safety on the kingside and Lanka kept looking for an elusive counterplay. The game lasted 39 moves.

Mishra defeated IM Shekhar Chandra Sahu in a battle arising out of an English opening. He let Sahu equalise comfortably in the middlegame but won a pawn on the queenside to press his advantage home in 55 moves.

Abhijit drew with Saptarshi Roy Chowdhry of West Bengal in another English opening game of the day. Abhijit launched a queenside attack but did not quite succeed against the moves of Kolkata youngster. The peace treaty was signed after 50 moves. This was Saptarshi's 13th draw besides three losses.

Ganguly played the game of the day, squeezing past teammate IM V Saravanan in a Ruy Lopez, Worrel Attack game with black pieces. Saravanan had an equal position on board after the opening but Ganguly came up with a brilliant attack plan on the kingside to win two piece for a rook.

The complications continued and Saravanan sacrificed his exchange to net three pawns for a piece. However, with his opponent's rook tucked at the edge of the board, Ganguly marched his king Bishop pawn pawn to create decisive threats. Saravanan resigned after 43 moves.

IMs D V Prasad of PSCB and P Harikrishna of Wipro remained in contention for the top honours with draws against IM K Murugan of NLC and G B Prakash respectively while another contender GM Pravin Thipsay had a bye today.

Results: Abhijit Kunte (11) drew Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury (6.5); V Saravanan (4.5) lost to S S Ganguly (10); D Barua (12) bt Lanka Ravi (7); Sriram Jha (6) drew Nassir Wajih (3.5); G B Prakash (7) drew P Harikrishna (9); D V Prasad (9) drew K Murugan (6.5); Neeraj Mishra (10) bt Shekhar Sahu (7.5); Atanu Lahiri (7) lost to Neelotpal Das (5.5); P Konguvel (9.5) lost to K Sasikiran (13); Praveen Thipsay (8.5)-bye.