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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
at Chessindia Complex, Calicut, here today.
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.
The top eight are seeded for the next National "A" while the
top four, viz., Ganguly, Chanda, Harikrishna and Kunte qualify for the
Olympiad team.
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 17.0 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 15.0
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 14.0 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.
Final
Placings
1-2 S S Ganguly,
Sandipan Chanda 17.5
3 P Harikrishna 17.0
4-6 Abhijit Kunte, Dibyendu Barua, Koneru Humpy 15.0
7 Tejas Bakre 14.0
8-9 Neelotpal Das, Sundararajan Kidambi 13.5
10 R B Ramesh 13.0
11 Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury 12.0
12 M R Venkatesh 11.5
13 Praveen Thipsay 11.0
14-15 Roktim Bandyopadhyay, Prathmesh Mokal 10.5
16 S Satyapragyan 9.5
17-18 Vishal Sareen, Vikramjit Singh 9.0
19-20 Arghyadip Das, Suvrajit Saha 8.5
21-22 T S Ravi, Sriram Jha 8.0
23-24 M Srinivasa Rao, V Hariharan 4.5
Round 23 Results
Satyapragyan S 2415
[9.5] drew with Harikrishna P 2570 [17]
Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury 2421 [12] drew with T S Ravi 2380
[8]
Neelotpal Das 2443 [13.5] drew with M Srinivasa Rao 2329
[4.5]
Tejas Bakre 2443 [14] drew with Venkatesh M R 2401
[11.5]
Praveen Thipsay 2486 [11] lost to Vishal Sareen 2367 [9]
Arghyadip Das 2299 [8.5] drew with R B Ramesh 2466 [13]
Suvrajit Saha 2387 [8.5] lost to S S Ganguly 2531 [17.5]
V Hariharan 2245 [4.5] lost to S Kidambi 2446 [13.5]
Koneru Humpy 2485 [15] beat Vikramjit Singh 2342 [9]
Sriram Jha 2458 [8] lost to Sandipan Chanda 2504 [17.5]
Prathamesh Mokal 2379 [10.5] lost to Dibyendu Barua 2528
[15]
Roktim Bandyopadhyay 2352 [10.5] drew with Abhijit Kunte 2535 [15]
LIVE
Coverage: http://www.live.chessindia.org/
(Agencies)
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