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| Sandipan Chanda |
Visakhapatnam: Grandmasters Surya Shekhar Ganguly and Sandipan Chanda of PSPB continued to lead the field after a none-too-eventful draw amongst themselves in the 14th round of the 42nd National A chess meet here on Tuesday.
Both Surya and Sandipan have collected 10 points each and are followed by former British champion GM Abhijit Kunte (PSBP) on 8.5 points.
While Sandipan is still to get his rest in the event, Surya Sekhar is a clear favourite to win the crown. He has an extra game on hand in this marathon event between 19 players. Just five rounds remain in the formulation of Indian team for the next year.
Between Sandipan and Surya Sekhar, it turned out to be more of a shadow boxing in the Italian game. As soon as the middle game arrived, it was clear that none would be able to make much headway. The draw, therefore, was a just result.
Kunte, meanwhile, tried hard in vain to make an impression against Suvrajit Saha, but the latter appeared quite well-equipped to tackle the complexities arising out of the Catalan opening by his formidable rival.
As it turned out after 52 moves, Abhijit had to concede half a point.
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| Surya Sekhar Ganguly |
The day produced just two decisive games and the big gainer was M.R. Venkatesh of PSPB, who bounced back in contention for a place in the national team with an emphatic victory over out-of-sorts Rahul Shetty of Indian Airlines.
It was a Sicilian defence that decided Shetty?s fate in just 32 moves. In the other decisive battle of the day, GM Koneru Humpy got the better of talented youngster Abhijit Gupta, who played the black side of a Slav Defence and was defeated in 36 moves.
In other important games of the day, Bengal?s Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury held GM Tejas Bakre to a draw, while GM Dibyendu Barua was forced to sign peace with young IM Deepan Chakravarthy.
In the 13th round on Monday, Surya and Sandipan defeated Neelotpal Das and Shetty, respectively.