AAI on sole lead – All India Chess Federation

Kolkata (09 Feb 19) :- Second seed Airports Authority of India took sole lead with ten points at the end of fifth round matches of the 39th National Team Championship which is in progress at Indian Council for Cultural Relations here on Saturday.

AAI registered a crucial victory over former champions and third seeded Railways ‘A’ with a score line of 2½ – 1½ in the fifth round battle. International Master Visakh N R produced the decisive result for AAI on fourth board as he outwitted Grandmaster Thejkumar with light colour pieces while other three boards ended with peace treaties.

Top seed Petroleum Sports Promotion Board is occupying the lone second spot with nine points after a hard-earned victory over Odisha with narrowest margin. For PSPB, Grandmaster Surya Shekhar Ganguly provided the break through by beating Sidhant Mohapatra on top board while all other boards ended without decisive results. With eight points in the kitty, Air India and Alekhine Chess Club ‘A’ along with Railways ‘A’ are sharing the third spot in the point table. Air India drew with Railways ‘B’ while Alekhine Chess Club defeated Telangana in the fifth round encounter.

Earlier in the fourth round, Air India held PSPB while Railways ‘A’ and Airports Authority of India got better off Telangana and Railway ‘B’ respectively.

In the women section, top seeds PSPB emerged as sole leaders with perfect score after the fourth round matches. PSPB defeated second seed Air India with score line of 2½ – 1½. Top seeds registered favourable results on first and third board through Soumya Swaminathan and Padmini Rout. Soumya beat S Meenkashi and Padmini cracked the defences of national champion Bhakti Kulkarni while on second board Mary Ann Gomes tasted defeat by the hands of experienced S Vijayalakshmi. With score line reading 2–1 in favour of PSPB, young Pratyush Bodda held her nerve at the crucial moments to split the point with seasoned campaigner Aarathie Ramaswamy to sail the team to victory.

With three more rounds remaining, Air India along with LIC, AAI and Bengal Tigresses are sharing the second spot in the point table with six points. Earlier in third round, PSPB beat AAI while Air India, Bengal Tigresses and LIC got better off Bihar, Rising Bengal and Uttar Pradesh respectively.

Team pairings

Round 6 on 2019/02/09 at 04.00 PM
No.	SNo	Team	Pts.	MP	Res.	:	Res.	MP	Pts.	Team	SNo
1	2	Airport Authority of India	15½	10		:		9	15	PSPB	1
2	4	Air India	14½	8		:		8	14½	Railways SPB – A	3
3	6	Bengal Red	15½	7		:		8	13½	Alekhine Chess Club – A –	7
4	20	Andhra Pradesh SA – B	13½	7		:		7	15½	Railways SPB – B	5
5	10	Bengal Blue	12	7		:		7	14	L I C	9
6	8	All Orissa CA	12½	6		:		7	12½	Tamil Nadu SCA	13
7	14	Alekhine Chess Club – B	11	6		:		6	12	Telangana SCA	11
8	22	Uttar Pradesh CSA	11½	6		:		6	11	Madhya Pradhesh CA	15
9	12	All Marathi CA – A	9	5		:		5	8½	Chess Dragons, Kolkata	24
10	23	Services SCB	10½	5		:		5	10	All Bihar CA – B	17
11	18	TCF Seniors Kolkata	9½	5		:		5	8	All Marathi CA – C	26
12	25	All Bihar CA – C	9½	5		:		5	11½	All Bihar CA – A	19
13	30	All Jharkhand CA	10½	5		:		5	10	Osmania University	21
14	31	Haryana CA	9	5		:		4	9	Pioneer Chess School, Kolkata	16
15	33	United Chess Academy	7½	4		:		4	9	City Chess Forum, Kolkata	27
16	28	DCA – Paschim Midnapore	8½	4		:		4	8½	All Marathi CA – B	34
17	41	P Morphy CA	8	4		:		3	8½	Himachal Padesh CA	40
18	37	Reserve Bank of India	7½	3		:		3	7	Andhra Prasesh CA	29
19	35	Virudhunagar DCA	6½	3		:		3	5	Ernakulam, Kerala	38
20	32	All Bihar CA – D	7½	2		:		3	5	TCF Juniors	42
21	43	University of Allahabad	7	2		:		2	5½	Himachal Pradesh CA – A	39
22	44	Ranga Reddy District Sub Junior	3	0		:		2	7	All Jharkhand CA – A	36

Team pairings: Women

Round 5 on 2019/02/10 at 09.30 AM
No.	SNo	Team	Pts.	MP	Res.	:	Res.	MP	Pts.	Team	SNo
1	6	L I C	12½	6		:		8	12½	PSPB	1
2	2	Air India	12½	6		:		6	11½	Airport Authority of India	3
3	4	Bengal Tigresses	12	6		:		4	9	Tamil Nadu	5
4	8	Rising Bengal	7½	4		:		4	8½	All Bihar CA	7
5	13	Himachal Pradesh	6½	3		:		3	7	U P CSA	9
6	11	All Marathi CA	6	3		:		3	5	Ranga Redy DIstrict Juniors	15
7	14	Himachal Pradesh – A	3	1		:		1	2	Ranga Reddy District	12
8	10	TCF, Kolkata	4½	2	2	:	0	0	0	bye	-1