No stopping for Railways ‘A’

Bhopal (06 Feb 17) :- The juggernaut of Railways ‘A’ continuing in the National team chess championship as they are cruising to defend the title with another superlative performance in the seventh round as they outwitted Life Insurance Corporation 3½ – ½ at Bansal Institute of Science and Technology on Monday.

This victory took Railway’s point tally to maximum possible fourteen match points from seven round and with just two rounds remaining, railway men are enjoying three points lead over nearest rivals Viyugam Chess Academy. For Railway ‘A’, International Masters P Karthikeyan, Himanshu Sharma and Grandmasters Swapnil Dhopade garnered full points over seasoned LIC campaigners Anup Deshmukh, Dinesh Sharma and Gajendra Singh respectively while the third board battle between Grandmasters Deepan Chakkravarthy and Sriram Jha ended without decisive result. Earlier in the sixth round, Railway ‘A’ defeated top seeds Airports Authority of India convincingly with 3½ – ½ margin.

Fifth seed Viyugam Chess Academy moved to sole second spot with eleven points after shocking third seed Air India in the seventh round. Lokesh N and Saravana Krishnan produced favourable results for Viyugam at top two tables by beating International Master S Satyapragyan and Swayams Mishra while Surendran N and Sekar B held their fancied rivals International Master N Srinath and Grandmaster Tejas Bakre on third and fourth board to register 3 -1 victory for Viyugam.

In the women section, Air India maintained their sole lead with nine points after making a clean sweep over host Madhya Pradesh ‘A’ in the fifth round. Airports Authority of India defeated Life Insurance Corporation 3 -1 and occupying the sole second spot with eight points while Bengal moved to the sole third spot with seven points after outwitting Tamilnadu 3 -1 in the fifth round encounter.

Round -7 (Open) :- LIC (8) lost to Railway ‘A’ (14) ½ – 3½ ; Viyugam Chess Academy (11) beat Air India (10) 3 -1; Airports Authority of India (10) beat BSNL (8) 4 – 0; Railway ‘B’ (10) beat Defence Accounts Sports Control Board (8) 3½ – ½ ; Andhra Bank (9) drew with Tamilnadu ‘A’ (9) 2 – 2; Karnataka (10) beat Sivakasi Chess Club (8) 2½ – 1½; Tamilnadu ‘B’ (7) lost to Kerala (10) 1½ – 2½ ; Bihar ‘A’ (9) beat Anand Chess Club (7) 3 – 1; Rajasthan ‘A’ (7) drew with Gujarat (8) 2 – 2; Madhya Pradesh ‘B’ (8) beat Bihar ‘B’ (6) 3 -1.

Round-6 (Open) :- Railway ‘A’ beat Airport Authority of India; Air India beat LIC; Viyugam Chess Academy drew with Railway ‘B’; BSNL drew with Karnataka; Kerala drew with Andhra Bank; Tamilnadu ‘A’ beat Rajasthan ‘A’; Sivakasi Chess Club beat Madhya Pradesh ‘B’; Defence Accounts Sports Control Board beat Bihar ‘B’; Gujarat drew with Tamilnadu ‘B’; Anand Chess Club drew with Resha Chess Hub.

Round-5 (Women) :- Madhya Padesh ‘A’ (6) lost to Air India (9) 0 – 4; Airports Authority of India (8) beat LIC (6) 3 – 1; Tamilnadu (6) lost to Bengal (7) 1 – 3; Madhya Pradesh ‘B’ (3) lost to Gujarat (6) 1 – 3; Telangana (3) lost to Academy of Chess Education (5) 1 – 3; Ewing Christian (2) drew with Punjab (4) 2 – 2; Gwalior (1) lost to Himachal Pradesh (4) 1½ – 2½ .