Championship heading for an exciting finish

By Gopakumar

Ahmedabad (22 Aug 17) :- Deepan Chakravarthy and RR Laxman produced emphatic victories in the penultimate round to pave the way for an exciting finish of 55th National Challengers Chess Championship at Karanavati Club here today.
Playing with black pieces in Sicilian defense, Deepan outsmarted his railway team mate Himanshu Sharma in a sheer attacking game in 32 moves. This victory enabled Deepan to move to the second spot in the point-ladder to be at a striking distance with leader Swapnil Dhopade.

As expected playing safe, overnight leader Dhopade settled for peace treaty with his Odisha counterpart Debashis Das in 25 moves and enjoyed a half-point leader over Deepan. But the equations could change, if Deepan secures a victory over him in final round tomorrow.

In another exciting battle of the day, Grandmaster RR Laxman outwitted third seed Lalith Babu to take his tally to 9 points. Playing with light colour pieces, the Chennai-based ICF man Laxman did not give any breathing space to his rival to seal the victory in 43 moves as he took only 52 minutes on his clock to clinch the encounter. Laxman and Das are now at joint third spot with 9 points.

12 players are at joint fifth place and eyeing for the 9 qualification spots for the national premier, scheduled in Novermber at Patna.

Important Results (Round-12) :- GM Swapnil Dhopade of RLYS (10) drew with GM Debashis Das of ODI (9); GM Deepan Chakkravarthy of RLYS (9.5) beat GM Himanshu Sharma of RLYS (8.5); GM RR Laxman of RLYS (9) beat GM MR Lalith Babu of PSPB (8.5); GM Aravindh Chithambaram of TN (8.5) drew with IM S Nitin of RLYS (8.5); IM S Ravi Teja of RLYS (8.5) drew with GM SL Narayanan of KER (8.5); IM Arghyadip Das of RLYS (8.5) beat Sammed Jaykumar Shete of MAH (8); IM Chakravarthy Reddy of TEL (7.5) lost to GM Abhijit Kunte of PSPB (8.5); GM Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury of RLYS (8.5) beat IM Swayams Mishra of AI (7.5); IM P Shyaamnikhil of RLYS (8) drew with Rajesh Nayak of ODI (8); IM S Satyapragyan of AI (8) drew with S Dhanjay of CHAT (8); Ankit Gajwa of MP (7.5) lost to GM Sriram Jha of LIC (8.5); WGM Mary Ann Gomes of PSPB (8.5) beat S Jayakumaar S of TN (7.5); Akash PC Iyer of TN (8) drew with Padmini Rout of PSPB (8); Fenil Shah of GUJ (8.5) beat Baivab Mishra of ODI (7.5); Surendran N of TN (8) drew with IM K Rathnakaran of RLYS (7.5).