09th December 2007 

Tournament Poised for an Exciting Finish

The Parsvnath Commonwealth Chess Championship 2007 in progress here at Sirifort Sports Auditorium is heading for an exciting finish as the overnight sole leader, IM K.Rathnakaran could only manage a draw against IM Sriram Jha in the 9th and penultimate round while top-seeded GM S.S. Ganguly, IM Vikramaditya Kamble and GM R.B. Ramesh posted victories over their respective rivals to join Rathnakaran in the lead. All these players now have theoretical chances of winning the championship depending on their outcome in the last round.

The game between Sriram Jha and K.Rathnakaran was modern benoni. Development went on equal footing for both the players with Jha enjoying more space advantage. He won a pawn on the 21 st move but Rathnakaran created counter chances by sacrificing his queen for two rooks, which was sufficient for him to hold Jha in 34 moves.

The game between Himanshu Sharma and top-seeded S.S. Ganguly was a French defense game, Himanshu, who needed a draw in this round to earn his 1 st GM norm opted for the safe exchange variation of this opening however; Ganguly created complications and came out better in the middle-game to win material. Himanshu tried his best to salvage the position but Ganguly maneuvered his pieces correctly to grind out a win in 82 moves.

Meanwhile, IM Vikramaditya Kamble continued his giant-killing spree by defeating WGM Nisha Mohota easily in the King's Indian defense to move to the top. The other notable result was the loss of 2 nd seeded English Gawain Jones to GM R.B. Ramesh in the four-knight's defense. Ramesh has now joined Ganguly, Rathnakaran, Vikramaditya Kamble on a 4-way tie for a thrilling last round finish.

It turned out to be a very good for Delhi as their two local players, IM Abhijeet Gupta completed his rating requirement of 2500 points to become India's 17 th Grandmaster, while 12-year old prodigy Sahaj Grover also earned his 1st International Master (IM) norm by defeating WGM Eesha Karavade. Their coach, IM Vishal Sareen was elated for this double gain on the same day. The norms also rained for other Indians in the fray, as M.S. Thejkumar improved on his IM norm to earn a GM by beating GM Tejas Bakre today. WGM Nisha Mohota from Kolkata and Shashikant Kutwal from Maharashtra also earned their 1st IM norm.

08th December 2007 

Rathnakaran Stops Himanshu, Leads

IM K. Rathnakaran ended the dream run of IM Himanshu Sharma by beating him comprehensively in the 8 th round of the Parsvnath Commonwealth Chess Championship 2007 in progress here at Sirifort Sports Auditorium to take the sole lead with a score of 7 points. Rathnakaran, playing white, carried the momentum of beating GM Negi in the previous round as he went into the offensive from the start in the Sicilian Rossolimo variation. Such was the force of his attack that Himanshu had to give up his queen on the 29 th move to avert mate. Rathnakaran completed the formality on move 36.

With only two rounds remaining in this event, tough fight was witnessed on all the boards. Top-seeded Ganguly remained in the hunt for the championship by stopping IM Arun Prasad in the Caro-Kann opening. Arun, playing black, was not able to equalize in the Caro-Kann opening. Ganguly created good outpost for his pieces and won a pawn on the 27 th move and thereafter wrapped up the game on the 31st move.

The game between IM Kidambi and 2nd seeded English GM Gawain Jones also witnessed tough fighting but Kidambi managed to hold Jones for a draw in 45 moves.

WGM Nisha Mohota proved that she is on equal footing with male players as she defeated Bangaldesh GM Reefat Bin Sattar. The game went on equal footing but Nisha gained slight advantage by winning a pawn. In an acute time scramble, Reefat overlooked mate threat and resigned when faced with loss of heavy material. With this win Nisha has now occupied 2 nd spot jointly with Ganguly, Himanshu Sharma, Ramesh, Vikramaditya Kamble and Sriram Jha to head for an exciting finish.

This was also the bad day for two of the most experienced Indian Grandmasters, Praveen Thipsay and Dibyendu Barua who crashed to defeats against Vikramaditya Kamble and P. Karthikeyan respectively. However, it turned out to be a good day for M.S. Thejkumar, who earned his 1st IM norm.

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