National Chess Championship: Karthik snatches sole lead before the final round
Karthik leads the championship standings with 9.5 points, while N. R. Visakh, Abhijeet Gupta and Sayantan Das follow closely on nine points.
Published : Jan 02, 2023 19:46 IST , NEW DELHI
Karthik Venkataraman (L) defeated Koustav Chatterjee in 35 moves in the penultimate round to lead the championship with 9.5 points. | Photo Credit: FILE PHOTO by Rakesh Rao
A second successive top-board victory with the dark pieces brightened Karthik Venkataraman’s prospects of winning the National chess title here on Tuesday.
A day after upstaging Abhijeet Gupta in an unusual finish, Karthik benefited from a dubious rook-for-knight trade-off by country’s latest Grandmaster Koustav Chatterjee on Monday and won in 35 moves.
On a day when the top-four boards saw decisive verdicts, the triumph gave Karthik (9.5 points) a half-point lead ahead of his 13th and final round clash with N. R. Visakh (9). Abhijeet and Sayantan Das are the other two players with 9 points.
Koustav, Aronyak Ghosh, N. B. Hari Madhavan, L. R. Srihari, Mitrabha Guha and P. Shyaamnikhil follow at 8.5 points.
Abhijeet, who plays Sayantan in the final round, needs a victory to challenge for the title. Ahead of the final round, this former champion enjoys the best tie-break score.
Facing Aronyak, Abhijeet capitalized on a weak defence and eventually threatened to capture a knight before the youngster resigned on the 34th move.
Sayantan ended the nine-round unbeaten run of N. B. Hari Madhavan in just 27 moves. After Madhavan’s premature aggression on the kingside, Sayantan launched a measured counter-attack and threatened to gain a knight. Sensing more damage, Madhavan gave up.
Visakh’s superior understanding of an endgame involving a bishop each and pawns came handy in ending Deepan Chakkravarthy’s resistance in 46 moves.