Barua pips Sasikiran for title

Grandmaster Dibyendu Barua of Tata Steel pipped top seed Grandmaster Krishnan Sasikiran of PSCB at the post and won the 38th edition of the National 'A' chess championship.

Though both Barua and Sasikiarn finished with 13.5 points from a maximum of 18, Barua's better tie-break score under the Koya system, with his victory over Sasikiran in the 11th round, helped him to win the title.

A winner in 1982 and 1998, this was Barua's third national title.

In the final round on Friday, Barua was held to a draw by Saptarshi Roy Chowdhry of West Bengal and Sasikiran drew with IM Neeloptal Das.

It was an exciting finale as Sasikiran had a few anxious moments against Neelotpal Das of GNCA before forcing a draw.

GM Abhjit Kunte of PSCB finished a clear third with 11.5 points. Abhijit had a bye on Friday.

IM Neeraj Kumar Mishra of Tata Steel drew with IM Pendyala Harikrishna in the last round to finish a creditable fourth position with 11 points.

A win would have placed Mishra third but he seemed content with his brilliant comeback to the Indian team after a decade.

Harikrishna finished fifth with 10.5 points after two of his contemporaries IM Ponnuswamy Konguvel (PSCB) and Surya Shekhar Ganguly (PSCB) suffered defeat at the hands of IM Shekhar Sahu of PSCB and double IM norm holder Sriram Jha of LIC.

Konguvel, Ganguly and IM D V Prasad (PSCB) finished with 10 points each but Konguvel finished sixth with a superior tie-break score. Ganguly finished seventh and Prasad was relegated to the eighth spot. He will now have to qualify to participate in the next edition.

Barua got a taste of his own medicine in the Petroff defence with white pieces as Sapatarshi slowly developed his position to create a dangerous threat against the king.

Realising soon enough that a win was highly improbable, Barua got up from the board, had a peek at Sasikiran's board and was all smiles realising that Sasikiran too could not win.

The draw offer on the next move was immediately accepted by Chowdhry

Results (final round):
D Barua (13.5) drew S R Chowdhry (7.5), K Sasikiran (13.5) drew Neelotpal Das (6.5), N K Mishra (11) drew P Harikrishna (10.5), P Konguvel (10) lost to S C Sahu (8.5); Sriram Jha (7) bt S S Ganguly (10), D D V Prasad (10) bt Nassir Wajih (4), V Saravanan (5.5) drew P M Thipsay (9.5), G B Prakash (7.5) lost to Lanka Ravi (9), Atanu Lahiri (8) lost to K Murugan (8).