New Delhi (14 Dec 10): World second youngest ever Grandmaster Parimarjan Negi taken the joint lead along with International Master Sethuraman after a resounding victory over Grandmaster Sundararajan Kidambi in the sixth round of the ongoing REC National Premier Chess Championship here at K R Mangalam World School, GK-II on Tuesday.
Playing with white pieces in Modern Line of Caro-Kann defence game, Negi displayed great attacking skills in the middle game to outwit his rival in 36 moves. Meanwhile playing white side of Nimzo-Indian Classical variation, overnight sole leader S P Sethuraman settled for half point after a marathon match that lasted 92 moves against Grandmaster R R Laxman of Railways. This result helped Negi to catch up with the leader in this Rs. 5.35 lakh prize money event.
In other important encounters in the sixth round, top seed G N Gopal once again failed to get a decisive result in his favour and satisfied with half point against Vidit Gujarathi of Maharashtra. This was the fourth consecutive draw for the top seed Grandmaster in this event.
IM Sethuraman
Playing with black pieces in Catalan Opening Grandmaster B Adhiban and Andhra International Master M R Lalith Babu split the point after mandatory 25 moves while National Challenger Champion M R Venkatesh signed the peace treaty with his team mate International Master P Konguvel. With four points in the kitty, seven players including Veteran Grandmaster Praveen Thipsay, who beat G A Stany in the sixth round battle are now sharing the joint second spot.
City youngster Vaibhav Suri held Grandmaster S Arun Prasad while G B Joshi and Rahul Sangma drew their sixth round games against Padmini Rout and J Ramakrishna respectively.
In seventh round tomorrow, Negi plays with Sethuraman Negi with black pieces while Gopal, Adhiban, Venkatesh and Laxaman paired against Laith Babu, Praveen Thipsay, Vidit Gujrathi and M S Thejkumar respectively with white pieces.
Results (Round 6): IM Sethuraman S P of Tamilnadu (4.5) drew with GM Laxman R R of Railways (4); IM Vidit Santosh Gujarathi of Maharashtra (4) drew with GM Gopal G N of PSPB (4); GM Parimarjan Negi (4.5) beat GM Kidambi S of PSPB (3.5); IM Lalith Babu M R of Andhra Pradesh (4) drew with GM Adhiban B of PSPB (4); IM Konguvel P of PSPB (3.5) drew with IM Venkatesh M R of PSPB (4); IM Thejkumar M S of Railways (3.5) drew with GM Tejas Bakre of Air India (3.5); IM Shyam Nikil of Tamilnadu (3.5) drew withGM Neelotpal Das of PSPB (3.5); IM Debashis Das of Orissa (3.5) drew with GM Deepan Chakkravarthy of Tamilandu (3.5); GM Praveen Thipsay (4) beat G A Stany of Karnataka (3); GM Abhijit Kunte of PSPB (3) drew with GM Deep Sengupta of West Bengal (3); GM Arun Prasad S of PSPB (3) drew with IM Vaibhav Suri of Delhi (3); IM Shyam Sundar M of Tamilnadu (3.5) beat IM Karthikeyan P of Tamilnadu (2.5); IM Saptarshi Roy of Railways (3) drew with IM Sudhakar Babu of Tamilnadu (3); IM Vishnu Prasanna of Tamilnadu (2.5) lost to IM Prathamesh Mokal of Maharashtra (3); IM Singh D P of Railways (3) beat IM Vikramaditya Kamble of Railways (2); Akash Thakur of Railways (3) beat FM Rajesh VAV of Tamilnadu (2); WGM Padmini Rout of Orissa (2.5) drew with G B Joshi of Air India (2.5); Matta Vinay Kumar of Andhra Pradesh (2.5) drew with Arjun Tiwari of Railways (2.5); IM Rahul Sangma of Delhi (2) drew with FM Ramakrishna J of Andhra Pradesh (2); Navin Kanna T U of Tamilnadu (2.5) beat IM Suvrajit Saha of Railways (1.5); WGM Soumya Swaminathan of Maharashtra (2.5) beat IM Dinesh Kumar Sharma of LIC (1.5); Shashikant Kutwal of Railways (1.5) drew with O T Anilkumar of Kerala (1)
