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Grandmaster Surya Shekhar Ganguly of Petroleum Sports Promotion Board won the 41st National 'A' Chess Championship after a comprehensive victory over Suvrajit Saha of West Bengal in the 23rd and final round in Kozikhode on Saturday.
His team mate Grandmaster Sandipan Chanda also tallied an identical 17.5 points but the former won on account of a superior tie-break score under the Koya system.
Both Ganguly and Chanda recorded 13 victories, nine draws and one loss in the championship. Ganguly became richer by Rs.52,500.
This was Ganguly's maiden title in the National 'A' championship. Just last month, the Kolkatan had given ample indication of his superb form by winning the Zonal Chess tournament with a score of 9.5/11. He had also won the National under-10 and under-12 titles apart from winning the National Juniors and a bronze medal in the World Junior Chess Championship at Goa in 2002.
Finishing third after an inspired performance was top seed Grandmaster Pendyala Harikrishna of Andhra Pradesh, who failed to pull off a final round win and had to settle for a draw with International Master S Satyapragyan of Indian Airlines.
Harikrishna, who finished with 17 points, could draw heart from the fact that he managed to be in the race for top honours despite a dismal start that fetched him just one point from the first four games.
In a three-way tie for the fourth spot, British champion Abhijit Kunte (PSPB) finished fourth, thanks to a better tie-break score than Commonwealth champion GM Dibyendu Barua of
West Bengal and GM Koneru Humpy of AP, who finished fifth and sixth respectively with 15 points apiece.
Also getting a seeding for the next edition of National 'A' was double GM norm holder Tejas Bakre of Indian Airlines and Neelotpal Das of PSPB.
Bakre scored 14 points while Das's tie-break score was better than his team mate IM S Kidambi.
Despite being aware that Harikrishna's tie-break score was better before the beginning of this round, an undeterred Ganguly played another fine game to beat Saha, who played black.
The opening choice was a big surprise by Saha, as he was saddled with a passive position soon in the middle game as Ganguly made progress in the centre and won a pawn by exerting pressure. Saha had no respite thereafter and lost the game after 46 moves.
Sandipan Chanda was very lucky to beat IM Sriram Jha of LIC after getting a clearly inferior position right from the word go. Jha had all Sandipan's pieces confined to the base rank in the Samisch variation of the King's Indian defence as white and, in the opinion of many, Sandipan was just lost.
However, Jha's form deserted him once again and he went for an unnecessary piece sacrifice that eventually paved the way for Chanda to come out triumphant in 48 moves.
Barua carved out a fine victory in the endgame against IM Prathamesh Mokal of Bank Sports Board while Humpy did the same against S Vikramjit Singh of Manipur. Abhijit expected his tie-break score to be better and drew with Roktim Bandhopadhyay of West Bengal.
Results (final round):
S Satyapragyan (9.5) drew P Hari Krishna (17); Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury (12) drew T S Ravi (8); Neelotpal Das (13.5) drew M Srinivasa Rao (4.5); Tejas Bakre (14) drew M R Venkatesh (11.5); Praveen Thipsay (11) lost to Vishal Sareen (9); Araghyadip Das (8.5) drew R B Ramesh (13); Suvrajit Saha (8.5) lost to S S Ganguly (17.5); V Hariharan (4.5) lost to S Kidambi (13.5); Koneru Humpy (15) beat S Vikramjit Singh (9); Sriram Jha (8) lost to Sandipan Chanda (17.5); Prathamesh Mokal (10.5) lost to Dibyendu Barua (15); Roktim Bandhopadhyay (10.5) drew Abhijit Kunte (15).