Sasikiran takes sole lead

International Master P Konguvel played it safe against V Saravanan to remain on course for his maiden Grandmaster norm but in the process saw top seed GM K Sasikiran take the sole lead with a win against defending champion GM Abhijit Kunte in the ninth round of the 38th National 'A' men's chess championship in Delhi on Friday.

Sasikiran moved to 7.5 points after capitalising on Kunte's blunder, half a point ahead Konguvel while Surya Sekhar Ganguly lies in the third spot with 6 points.

All the matches except Konguvel's were fought hard and it was the grit and determination of Sasikiran that hogged the limelight. Playing black, Sasikiran employed his pet Caro Kann defence and the transposition to the Nimzo Indian was not unusual in the Panov Botwinnik attack.

A level position was reached in the middlegame but Kunte could not hold on to his own after that and lost a rook for a minor piece. Sasikiran put the material advantage to optimum use in the endgame and made the technicalities look very easy thereon.

Ganguly got an easy point from IM K Murugan of NLC. Playi- ng white, the Indian Oil employee caught Murugan off guard in one of the established variations of the Sicilian Schveningen defence and won a piece after a rather uncharacteristic blunder by Murugan. He went on to convert the advantage into a win rather easily.

IM D V Prasad jumped to 5.5 points with a hard-fought win over GM-in-waiting G B Prakash. It was a perfect display of technical chess by Prasad in the Grunfeld defence with black pieces.

Prakash sacrificed a pawn early in the middlegame but struggled to get the desired counterplay as the rooks got exchanged early. The resulting Queen and minor pieces endgame turned out to be clearly advantageous for Prasad who ended the game with a picturesque comination resulting in mate.

In a game of fluctuating fortunes, GM Dibyendu Barua was eventually lucky to survive a lost king and pawns endgame against IM Atanu Lahiri. The opening was the Winawer variation of the French defence and Barua enjoyed a substantial edge for the major part of the game. However with victory in sight, Barua made a blunder and it was Lahiri who looked like netting a big fish till he returned the favour to let the game drift towards a draw.

GM Pravin Thipsay was similarly lucky to escape with a draw against IM Neelotpal Das while IM Lanka Ravi got the better of double GM norm holder IM P Harikrishna of Wipro.

Results round 9: Abhijit Kunte (5) lost to K Sasikiran (7.5); V Saravanan (1.5) drew P Konguvel (7); S S Ganguly (6) bt K Murugan (2.5); D Barua (5.5) drew Atanu Lahiri (5); Lanka Ravi (4.5) bt P Harikrishna (4.5); Sriram Jha (2.5) lost to N K Mishra (5.5); G B Prakash (3) lost to D V Prasad (5.5); S R Chowdhry (3) drew S C Sahu (4.5); P M Thipsay (3.5) drew Neelotpal Das (3); Nassir Wajih 1.5 - Bye.