National Premier 01: Lalith Babu and Deepan Start with Wins

Patna: GM Himanshu Sharma and IM S. Nitin had a below-par outing as GM Deepan Chakkravarthy and GM Lalith Babu MR defeated them in Patna today.

Fourth seed Lalith Babu gave no chance to Nitin who had to defend sorrowfully with black. It was a one-way traffic in a way with White having all the fun.

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While Lalith already had a very comfortable position after 11 moves, the second result of the day was topsy-turvy.

GM Deepan had a clear pressure over sixth seed GM Himanshu Sharma.But there was a sudden drop of intensity in Deepan’s performance and Himanshu had a chance to hold with a sharp continuation.

Black could’ve saved the game at one point if he had played 28…Rc7 instead of …Kb2. Even then he had a chance to hold by sacrificing a bishop but Himanshu never played it, perhaps due to time pressure.

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 Unheralded newcomer Sammed Shete had a pleasant position as well with the white pieces, with better pawn structure. But maybe, he had to be a bit more confident in his abilities and play a move like h4. Instead, he took on c4, allowing Black (GM Debashis Das) to equalize easily.

PGN