Four teams share lead; BSNL held Railway ‘B’

Bhopal (03 Feb 17) :- Four teams including top seeds Airport Authority of India and defending champions Railways ‘A’ are sharing the lead with perfect scores at the end of third round matches of the ongoing National Team Chess Championship here at Bansal Institute of Science & Technology on Friday.

AAI defeated LIC 3 ½ – ½ while Railways ‘A’ got better off Tamilnadu ‘A’ with an identical margin. Third seed Air India and fifth seed Viyugam Chess Academy registered victories over Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh ‘B’ with a score line of 2 ½ – 1 ½ to give company to AAI and Railways ‘A’ at top of point table.

In a surprising result of third round, BSNL held fourth seed Railways ‘B’ to a creditable draw. For Railway men, International Master Nitin S and Grandmaster Laxman R R registered comfortable victories over Aslam Belim and Jayakumar P in first and fourth board but Ram S Krishnan and Hemal Thanki produced emphatic victories over International Master CRG Krishna and K Ratnakaran in second and third board to make it even for BSNL.

Meanwhile in the women section, top seed Air India and second seed Airports Authority of India along with LIC and Gujrat are leading with perfect scores at end of second round. Air India defeated Tamilnadu with narrowest margin while AAI overcome Bengal 3 ½ – ½. LIC defeated Madhya Pradesh ‘A’ and Gujarat outwitted Telangana in the second round encounters.

For Air India, IM Vijayalakshmi S and sister WGM Meenakshi S provided decisive results on top two boards while current Asian Women Champion Bhakti Kulkarni suffered a shock defeat against J Saranya on third board. Michelle Catherina signed the peace treaty with Y Saranya on fourth board to register 2 ½ – 1 ½ score line in favour of the top seeds.

Important Results :-

Round-3 (Open) :- LIC (4) lost to Airports Authority of India (6) ½ – 3½ ; Railways ‘A’ (6) beat Tamilnadu ‘A’ (4) 3½ – ½ ; Karnataka (4) lost to Air India (6) 1½ – 2½ ; Railways ‘B’ (5) drew with BSNL (5) 2 – 2; Madhya Pradesh ‘B’ (4) lost to Viyugam Chess Academy (6) 1½ – 2½ ; Tamilnadu ‘B” (4) beat Sivakasi Chess Club (3) 2½ – 1½ ; Academy of Chess Education (2) lost to Defence Accounts Sports Control Board (4) 1 – 3; Andhra Bank (3) drew with Bihar ‘B’ (3) 2 – 2; Punjab (2) lost to Kerala (4) 1½ – 2½ ; Himachal Pradesh (2) lost to Rajasthan ‘A’ (4) 0 – 4.

Round-2 (Open) :- Airport Authority of India beat Tamilnadu ‘B’; Defence Accounts Sports Control Board lost to Railways ‘A’; Air India beat Bihar ‘A’; Kerala lost to Railways ‘B’; Viyugam Chess Academy beat Services Sports Control Board; Rajasthan ‘A’ lost to LIC; Tamilnadu ‘A’ beat Madhya Pradesh ‘A’; Gujarat lost to Karnataka; BSNL beat Gwalior ‘C’; Anand Chess Club lost to Madhya Pradesh ‘B’.

Round-2 (Women) :- Air India (4) beat Tamilnadu (2) 2 ½ – 1 ½ ; Bengal (2) lost to Airports Authority of India (4) ½ – 3 ½ ; LIC (4) beat Madhya Pradesh ‘A’ (2) 3 -1; Gujarat (4) beat Telangana (0) 4 – 0; Himachal Pradesh (2) beat Academy of Chess Education (0) 3 -1; Ewing Christian (0) lost to Madhya Pradesh (2) 0 – 4; Punjab (2) beat Gwalior (0) 4 – 0.