Unheralded Pradeep Ghosh stunned N. Srinath, the highest rated International Master in the field to pull off the biggest second-round surprise in the Amity National Challengers’ chess championship here on Sunday.
Ghosh, rated a whopping 356 rating points below Srinath, became part of the 29-member leaders’ group at two points.
In this Sicilian game, Ghosh played aggressively and kept Srinath under constant pressure. Finally, Srinath cracked on the 31st move when he was forced to give up a knight and gave up six moves later.
Delhi girl Vantika Agarwal, one of the consistent performers at the age-group level, also posted an incredible result by holding Grandmaster R. R. Laxman. Vantika, rated 1974 – 415 points below Laxman’s 2389 – forced a draw after 84 moves, with both players failing to find a way forward with a rook and two pawns each.
For the leading names, it was smooth sailing. Top seed Aravindh Chithambaram led the seven of the top-10 seeds into the lead.
The results:
Second round: Aravindh Chithambaram (2) bt G. B. Joshi (1); Abid Ali (1) lost to S. L. Narayanan (2); Vishnu Prasanna (2) bt Sudhir Kumar Sinha (1); V. Varshini (1) lost to Abhijit Kunte (2); Shardul Gagare (2) bt Milind Gawade (1); Pradip Ghosh (1) bt N. Srinath (2); Tejas Bakre (2) bt V. S. Negi (1); Santu Mondal (1.5) drew with Himal Gusain (1.5); Sriram Jha (2) bt Brajesh Agarwal (2); Baivab Mishra (1.5) drew with Surya Praneeth (1.5); Indranil Das (1) lost to S. Nitin (2); R. R. Laxman (1.5) drew with Vantika Agarwal (1.5); Sumit Grover (1) lost to Ravi Teja (2); Abhishek Kelkar (1.5) drew with Arun Rathi (1.5); Rajesh Nayak (1) lost to Mehar Chinna Reddy (2).
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