Win takes Nisha to seven points

New Delhi: Grandmaster R.B. Ramesh pulled off an impressive win against International Master Sriram Jha, to intensify the battle for the top 14 in the 43rd National ‘B’ Chess Tournament here on Tuesday.

Ramesh, leading on eight points from a possible nine, will now be looking for another full point against Valay Parikh to come closer to the title as four rounds remain.

He is followed by M.R. Lalith Babu and Valay Parikh with 7.5 points while seven others are joint third on seven points. Top 14 players from the tournament would make the cut for the elite National ‘A’ Championship.

Lalith Babu defeated higher-rated Himanshu Sharma in 29 moves while Parikh scored a full point in only 19 moves against Diwakar Prasad Singh of Jharkhand.

WGM Nisha Mohota of Bengal, on course for her best-ever performance in National ‘B’, scored a top board win over IM C. S. Gokhale to be on seven. L. Ishwarya Shobhana defeated IM N. K. Mishra on a lower board.

Top seed Ramesh played Semi Slav Defence with white, and castled on the queen side on the 10th move to which Sriram employed a new variation which did not pay off.

The Delhi player offered a draw on the 13th move, only to be refused.

After losing on Monday, IM R.R. Laxman was held by Delhi’s Gurpreet Pal Singh in 48 moves.

IM-in-waiting Parimarjan Negi suffered three successive defeats, languishing on five points. He lost to much lower ranked Y. Dhanabir of Manipur.