Sasikiran books ticket to National A

There was tragedy for International Master Neeraj Mishra of Bihar and Shankar Roy of Railways as both wilted under pressure.

Sasikiran outwitted Rahul shetty of Indian Airlines and reached 10 points to book a place in the premier championship where he would be playing for a long time, if his performance is any indication.

Technically, Anup Deshmukh, on nine points, can catch up with Sasikiran with some permutations and combinations. Anup showed sparks of brilliance while handing a 32-move defeat to Shankar Roy on the second board. With the French Defence he faced the Kings Indian Attack from Roy, who sacrificed a pawn but played passively thereafter. Anup gave back the pawn, rolled his Queenside pawns. However, action was on the other wing as Anup started throwing material, first an exchange which Roy declined, and then his Queen for rook, which led to a mating attack.

Sasikiran employed the Caro-Kann Defence against Rahul Shetty. Play went on for six hours leading to a simplified position in which Sasikiran kept rook and knight against white’s rook and bishop. Sasi’s cluster of pawns on the Kingside proved decisive in the end with a strong knight as Shetty gave up after 67 moves when he lost a pawn. “He had a draw in so many places,” said Sasikiran. “I am delighted that I have qualified. I wish to play for the title now,” added the 16-year-old who searched for words during his ecstatic moments.

Twenty-one year old Yogesh Gore of P&T overcame Neeraj Mishra in 73 moves. Gore, on 8.5 points, has good chances of making his debut in National A.Neelotpal Das of Goodricke Academy is another young player in the reckoning. His 44-move draw with Sriram Jha of LIC in Semi-Slav took him to 8.5 points.M R Venkatesh of TN met his match in IM elect V Saravanan of PSCB. Venkatesh lost two pieces for rook in Sicilian Defence and blew up his chances of qualification.

Topboard results of the 11th round

Rahul Shetty (IA) 8 lost to Sasikiran (TN) 10; Shankar Roy (Rlys) 8 lost to Anup Deshmukh (LIC) 9; Sriram Jha (LIC) 8 drew with Neelotpal Das (Goodricke) 8.5; Yogesh Gore (P&T) 8.5 bt N.K.Mishra (Bihar) 7.5; Sandipan Chanda (Goodricke) 7.5 lost to V Koshy (PSCB) 8.5; GB Joshi (IA) 8.5 bt S Gokhale (PSCB) 7.5; MR Venkatesh (TN) 7.5 lost to V Saravanan (PSCB) 8; P Mitrakanth (NLC) 8 bt MB Muralidharan (Ker) 7; S Saha (Bengal) 8 bt Manojkumar Panigrahi (Ori) 7; RB Ramesh (PSCB) 7.5 drew with DK Sharma (LIC) 7.5; SK Rathore (MP) 7.5 drew with Karthik (TN) 7.5; Pavanasam (NLC) 7.5 drew with GB Prakash (BSB) 7; CS Gokhale (IA) 7 drew with Jitendrakumar (Bih) 7; Manthan Chokshi (Guj) 7.5 bt Girinath (Rail) 6.5; Sudhakar Babu (BSB) 6.5 lost to Visweswaran (TN) 7.5; Gladwin 6.5 lost to Vishal Sareen (LIC) 7.5; S Kidambi (TN) 6.5 lost to Sanjay N (Kar) 7.5; Shantaram (BSB) 7.5 bt Tejas Bakre (IA) 6.5; Dongre (Mah) 6.5 lost to Vijayalakshmi (TN) 7.5; Ebenezer Joseph (TN) 7 drew with D.R.Jaiswal (OFSCB) 7; N Sharma (Bih) 6.5 lost to Amar Deep Bartakke (Mah) 7.5; Nasir Wajih (Raj) 6 lost to SS Soman (Mah) 7; SS Ganguly (Goodricke) 6.5 drew with Harikrishna (AP) 6.5; Roktim Bandopadhyay (WB) 7 bt YP Srivastava (P&T) 6.