Ghaziabad-based 14-year old girl Shanya Mishra was not even born when Pravin Thipsay won last of his seven National titles in 1994. On Tuesday, she probably had little idea of her illustrious second-round rival while scripting a stunning upset in the Commonwealth chess championship here.
In just 31 moves of Kings Indian, Shanya destroyed the erstwhile king of Indian chess. Thipsay, who will turn 58 next month, paid the price for his poor piece-placement on the king’s side.
Shanya cleverly launched a calculated attack from the queen’s side with the help of queen and rook, claimed Thipsay’s queen and forced the country’s third and oldest Grandmaster to resign.
The day left 20 leaders in the fray headed by favourite Abhijeet Gupta.
After a series of upsets in Round One, a semblance of sanity was restored with most boards producing expected results.
However, the round was not without its share of surprises. Rajesh Nayak held 10th seeded Bangladesh GM Abdullah Al Rakib Mollah, G. B. Joshi proved equal to another Bangladesh GM Niaz Murshed, K. Priyanka brought down National ladies champion Padmini Rout and first-round hero Kumar Gaurav drew with International Master C. Praveen Kumar.
Important second round results:
Open (Indian unless stated): Abhijeet Gupta (2) bt P. V. Nandhidhaa (1); Chakravarthi Reddy (1) lost to Aravindh Chithambaram (2); Vaibhav Suri (2) bt Srija Seshadari (1); Swapnil Dhopade (2) bt Mrudul Dehankar (1); Ooi Zhi Yang (1) lost to Abhijit Kunte (2); Deepan Chakravarthy (2) bt D. Jishitha; Rajesh Nayak (1.5) drew with Abdullah Al Rakib (Ban, 1.5); Ankita Rajpara (2) bt Parnali Dharia (1); Kiran Mohanty (1.5) drew with Shardul Gagare (1.5); G. B. Joshi (1.5) drew with Niaz Murshed (Ban, 1.5); K. Priyanka (2) bt Padmini Rout (1); Shamima Akter (Ban, 1) lost to Soumya Swaminathan (2); Mary Ann Gomes (2) bt Tarini Goyal (1); Kumar Gaurav (1.5) drew with C. Praveen Kumar (1.5); Swati Ghate (2) bt Rohit Vassan (1); Shanya Mishra (1.5) bt Praveen Thipsay (0.5).
Comments
SHARE