Sasikiran wins National 'A' chess

In a repeat of the 1999 championship, Grandmaster Krishnan Sasikiran won the Bharat Petroleum-sponsored 39th National 'A' chess tournament, which concluded in Nagpur on Monday.

Sasikiran topped the table with 14.5 points out of a possible 19.

Grandmaster Pendyala Harikrishna, who was lucky to win his last round game, was runner-up, with 14 points to his credit.

Sasikiran and Harikrishna emerged richer by Rs 35,000 and Rs 27,000 respectively.

International Master S S Ganguly and Grandmaster Dibyendu Barua were held to draws and finished third and fourth respectively.

GM Abhijit Kunte, who settled for a quick draw with IM N K Mishra, raised his score to 11 points and finished fifth, while R B Ramesh, who got the better of B T Murlikrishnan finished sixth.

The top six will represent India in international chess tournaments.

On Monday, Sasikiran opened with his king pawn and faced the modern defence of IM V Koshy. He won a pawn on the 19th move but had to return it on the 27th move. After recovering the pawn, Koshy offered the draw on the 29th move, which Sasikiran refused. On the 40th move, when loss of exchange was forced, Koshy resigned.

Fortune smiled on GM Harikrishna today. He replied to Vishal Sareen's king pawn with the Sicilian defence. The two castled on the opposite wings and Vishal made his intentions clear with his rook move to g1. He surprised Harikrishna with a bishop sacrifice one, which Harikrishna had to leave untouched, and in the process Vishal emerged a pawn up. He kept up the pressure on Harikrishna's weak d pawn and gobbled it on the 26th move.

But under time pressure and his anxiety to win the game, he overlooked a three-move combination. Threatened with the loss of a full rook, Vishal resigned, handing Harikrishna victory on a platter.

For the unfortunate Vishal, it was so near, yet so far.

WGM S Vijayalakshmi and WIM Swati Ghate, the two women players in their first appearance in national 'A', finished the championship with 8 and 7 points respectively. Vijayalakshmi was placed 15th while Ghate was 17th.

Results of round 19 (final):-

K Sasikiran (14.5) bt V Koshy (7), S.Vijayalakshmi (8) bt P Magesh Chandran (8.5), D Barua (12.5) drew with N.Sudhakar Babu (9.5), C S Gokhale (9) drew with S S Ganguly (13), D V Prasad (8.5) bt Swati Ghate(7), R B. Ramesh (10.5) bt B R Murlikrishnan (4), Vishal Sareen (8.5) lost to P Harikrishna (14), P .Konguvel (7.5) drew with Sriram Jha (10), N K Mishra (6) drew with Abhijit Kunte (11).

Final placings (with points) of the players:-

1.GM K Sasikiran (14.5), 2. GM P Harikrishna (14), 3. IM S S Ganguly (13), 4. D Barua (12.5), 5. GM Abhijit Kunte (11), 6. IM R B Ramesh (10.5), 7. GM Pravin Thipsay (10), 8. IM V Sarvanan (10), 9. IM Sriram Jha (10), 10. IM Sudhakar Babu (9.5). 11. C S Gokhale (9), 12. IM D V Prasad (8.5), 13. P Magesh Chandran (8.5), 14.Vishal Sareen (10), 15. WGm S.Vijayalakshmi (8), 16. IM P Konguel (7.5),17.WIM Swati Ghate (7), 18. IM V Koshy (7), 19. IM N K Mishra (6), 20. B T Murlikrishnan (4).