World second youngest ever Grandmaster Parimarjan Negi beat Grandmaster Arun Prasad in the penultimate round to extended his sole lead to full point in the ongoing REC National Premier Chess Championship here at K R Mangalam World School, GK-II on Tuesday. This crucial victory enabled Negi to took his point tally to nine points from possible twelve and he just need half point from the final round tomorrow to take the coveted National Champion title.

Playing with black pieces in Semi-Slav opening, Negi took the control early in the game and not allowed his opponent any breathing space to seal the match in just 31 moves. Meanwhile top seed G N Gopal agreed to split the point with former national champion Abhijit Kunte after the mandatory twenty five moves. Gopal along with former world under-14 champion Vidit Santosh Gujrathi and defending champion Grandmaster B Adbhian are now at joint second position with eight points. Playing white side of Fianchetto variation of King’s Indian Defence, Vidit got better off seven time national champion Grandmaster Praveen Thipsay in thirty nine moves while Adhiban crushed team mate S Kidambi in just twenty two moves in Queen’s Gambit declined game.

In other important encounters in the twelfth round, International Master M R Lalith Babu held fifth seed Grandmaster Tejas Bakre of Air India while M R Venkatesh got the measure of Grandmaster Deepan Chakkravarthy in twenty five moves. Continuing his fine run, Karnataka youngster G A Stany held third seed Grandmaster Deep Sengupta to a creditable draw while Navin Kanna stunned triple Grandmaster norm holder M S Thejkumar of Railways. International Master Vikramaditya Kamble overcomes Grandmaster Neelotpal Das and D P Singh held team mate Grandmaster R R Laxman in the twelfth round battle.

In the final round, Negi will takes on Bakre while Gopal and Vidit pitted against Adhiban and Kunte respectively. Final round of the championship will be held on Wednesday morning followed by closing ceremony in the afternoon.




Results (Round-12):- GM Arun Prasad S of PSPB (7) lost to GM Parimarjan Negi of PSPB (9); GM Abhijit Kunte of PSPB (7.5) drew with GM Gopal G N of PSPB (8); IM Vidit Santosh Gujarathi of Maharashtra (8) beat GM Praveen Thipsay of Maharashtra (7.5); IM Lalith Babu M R of Andhra Pradesh (7.5) drew with GM Tejas Bakre of Air India (7.5); GM Adhiban B of PSPB (8) beat GM Kidambi S of PSPB (6.5); IM Venkatesh M R of PSPB (7.5) beat GM Deepan Chakkravarthy of Tamilnadu (6.5); IM Shyam Sundar of Tamilnadu (7) drew with IM Vaibhav Suri of Delhi (7); GM Deep Sengutpa of West Bengal (6.5) drew with Stany GA of Karnataka (6.5); IM Vikramaditya Kamble of Railways (6.5) beat GM Neelotpal Das of PSPB (6); WGM Soumya Swaminathan of Maharashtra (5.5) lost to IM Sethuraman S P of Tamilnadu (6.5); IM Singh D P of Railways (6) drew with GM Laxman R R of Railways (6); IM Thejkumar MS of Railways (5.5) lost to Navin Kanna T U of Tamilnadu (6.5); Arjun Tiwari of Railways (5.5) lost to IM Konguvel P of PSPB (6); IM Saptarshi Roy of Railways (6) beat IM Debashis Das of Orissa (5); IM Prathamesh Mokal of Maharashtra (6) beat IM Sudhakar Babu of Tamilnadu (5); IM Karthikeyan P of Tamilnadu (6) beat WGM Padmini Rout of Orissa (5); IM Shyam Nikil of Tamilnadu (6) beat IM Rahul Sangma of Delhi (4.5); Matta Vinay Kumar of Andhra Pradesh (5) drew with FM Ramakrishna J of Andhra Pradesh (5); Shashikant Kutwal of Railways (4) beat FM Rajesh VAV of Tamilnadu (4.5); IM Vishnu Prasanna of Tamilnadu (4) lost to IM Suvrajit Saha of Railways (5); IM Dinesh Sharma of LIC (4.5) drew with Akash Thakur of Railways (4.5); Anilkumar O T of Kerala (2.5) beat Joshi G B of Air India (4).

M.S.Gopakumar
Joint Secretary(Admn), Delhi Chess Association