Pranesh M in Open and Velpula Sarayu in Girls lead the table with 8 points

33^rd VMRDA National Open & Girls Chess Championship, 2019, Visakhapatnam

Report by IA S.PAUL AROKIA RAJ

The fierce fight among the top contenders in the ninth round has resolved the leadership issue in the open category with the top seed M.Pranesh of Tamil Nadu taking up the sole lead with 8 points. Three others Pranav V, Nikhil Magizhnan (both Tamil Nadu), Krishnan Ritvik (Maharashtra) are close on the heels of the leader with 7.5 points.

Nine others occupy the third place with 7 points each. As expected in the Girls section Telangana’s Velpula Sarayu continued to maintain her dream run with 8 points. Six players namely Keerthi Ganta (both Telangana), Kriti Mayur Patel (Maharashtra), Renganayaki V (Karnataka), Tejaswini G ( Tamil Nadu), Panda Miracle and Barik Bijayalaxmi (both Orissa) are one point behind the leader on the second spot.

Pranesh overpowered Jubin Jimmy’s caro kann defense by choosing the advance variation. His thoughtful moves in the middle game totally paralyzed the black side that black has to give up the pawns to wriggle out of the pressure. In the ensuing rook ending, Pranesh proved his sound end game knowledge to strike a crucial victory in 60 moves. In a game involving two Tamil Nadu lads Nikhil Magizhnan and V.Pranav the former employed scotch opening. As both played a well prepared opening moves, the game reached an even position and the players signed a peace treaty.

In a scintillating mach on the top table between two Telangana’s girls Kheerthi Ganta and Velpula Sarayu, the former was enjoying space advantage in Averbekh system against Black’s King’s Indian defense. However, Kheerthi Ganga failed to convert it into a win and allowed the top seed to equalize the game in the early middle game. Therefore the players decided to split the point in 32 moves. Tejaswini G (Tamil Nadu) scored a fluent victory over Tanisha (Maharashtra) in a miniature game from scotch opening. When Tejaswani trapped her opponent queen, black conceded her defeat on her 23rd move.

Results

Round 9

Results

Round 9