Daijiworld Media Network - Mangalore (SP)
Mangalore, Jul 23: Two players, IM B T Muralikrishnan of Southern Railways (S.Rly) and untitled C Praveen kumar of Tamilnadu are sharing the lead with 5 full points each at the end of the fifth round of the third Mangalore FIDE-rated chess tournament being held from July 20 onwards at the Radhakrishna temple hall in the city. Close on their heels at the second spot with 4.5 pts are GM Thipsay and Sohan Phadke of Maharastra, IM Thejkumar, Shivananda and Antonio Viani D’Cunha of Karnataka and S.Kaushik of Tamilnadu.
On the top board, IM R Balasubramaniam of ICF lost to IM B T Muralikrishnan of S Rly. Facing the Queen’s Gambit accepted by Murali, Balasubramaniam chose the slightly inferior 12 Nd4 and missed the counter 16 …e5 which were the turning points that led to his downfall in 30 moves. C Praveen Kumar of TN successfully thwarted N Sanjay’s attempts in King’s Indian Defence, to win the game in 33 moves.
But once again it was Antonio Viani D’Cunha, who stole the limelight by beating IM Anup Desmukh of Maharastra. Viani, playing the white pieces, chose the quiet variation against Anup’s Two Knights defence. In the 19th move, Desmukh pushed his pawn, overlooking an intermediate move resulting in the loss of a pawn. Viani nurtured his advantage and converted it into a full point in 45 moves. Amongst this, another upset of the tournament went unnoticed on the 8th board, where Kaushik of TN defeated WGM Meenakshi of Indian Airlines. Kaushik’s attack against Meenakshi’s Pirc defence fetched him two pawns in a Queen, Rook, Bishop ending. Thereafter, the youngster was quick to taste the win in 39 moves.
Top seeded players IM Laxman of ICF disposed Balasubramaniam of TN with ease and GM Thipsay of Maharastra outplayed Saravanakrishnan of TN in 45 moves from an Alekhine defence game. IMs Koshy and Thejkumar played out the Catalan opening. Thej utilized his queen side majority and the passive rook of his opponent to win the game in 42 moves. Sohan Phadke of Maharastra caused a mild flutter by beating IM N Sudhakar Babu of TN on the 9th table.
Earlier, the round was graced by the presence of Prabhuling Kavalikatti, KAS, assistant commissioner and sub divisional officer of the city sub-division.