Seeded players surge ahead in Open Chess tourney

Chennai, July 30: The sixth Adyar Times New Millennium FIDE Rated Open Chess Tournament started on a peaceful note in the sense that none of the FIDE rated players on the top tables were toppled.

This year chapter is equipped with four International Masters, R R Laxman, K Murugan, TS Ravi and N Sudhakar Babu and three FIDE Masters K V Shantharam, V Hariharan and young S Nitin. But, the four IMs and three FMs was not at all a surprise, but for the news of one D P Singh of Jharkhand, who had a hopping 2522 point' as his FIDE rating is billed first in the list of players.

Singh played on board six for India in the 37th Chess Olympiad held in Turin, Italy, in May-June this year along with Indian super Grandmasters Viswanathan Anand, Krishnan Sasikiran and Pentalya Harikrishna, was a big catch for the organisers.

A persistent and dedicated player, who go rounds and getting higher ratings, as all his attempts had almost missed many of the norm tournaments and hence was yet to get his IM tittle, despite having a norm of 2522, surpassing the the GM limitation of 2500.

On the top table, Singh had to face S Bhavani of Hosur, who is playing after seven years. The woman working in TCS, an IT professional company, gave some anxious moments to the top notcher.

Bhavani was so engrossed in playing. that she stopped writing the score sheet after making each of her move, such a blemish goes against the FIDE Laws of Chess. After getting a warning from S Paul Arokiaraj, the Chief Arbiter of the tournament, she completed the score sheet.

The irregular ''e3'' opening lead to a some what equal position, but Singh steered the game in his favour by a straight threat de- pawn queening and wrapped up the issue in 29 moves.

IM R R Laxman in a Catalan system against D Chaitanya Sravanthi, made full use of his Queen and Rook combinations to execute a nice checkmate at his 25th move.

Tamil Nadu 's acclaimed IM K Murugan, a Sports Officer in the NLC, Neyveli wriggled out from the Ritcher Rauser Attack in the Sicilian defence launched by his opponent.With a controlling rook and another checking rook , it became easy for Murugan to push his ''e'' and ''f'' pawns towards queening squares and, Chaithan had no alternative but to surrender his bishop and the game at the nick of 48th move.

IM T S Ravi(IOC) with white had no difficulty in disposing of the local girl A Deepa in the closed Sicilain that lasted 25 moves. With a queen and pair of bishops, the kingside attack became complete, favoring the title holder.

Indian Bank's IM N Sudhakar Babu with black pieces and facing the the Ruy Lopez Exchange vaqriation employed by Y Dhivaahar went for an early exchange of queens at their seventh move itself. In a rook and minor pieces ending, Babu's Bishop proved stronger than his opponent's wingless knight. The tournament strength included 64 FIDE rated players and the rest of 112 players have to vie for FIDE rating from this tournament onwards.

The last year winner IM R Balasubramaniam (ICF) is not taking part because of his commitment to play in the ongoing Railways Individual Championship in the Chennai ICF itself.

The previous five winners of this tournament were B T Muralikrishnan (S.Rlys 2001), IM R.Balasubramaniam (ICF)(2002,05), GM R B Ramesh (IOC) (2003), and IM M R Venkatesh (BPCL)(2004).

The total cash prizes offered was Rs 70,000, winner taking Rs 16,000 plus a trophy.

This least expensive FIDE rated open chess tournament in the country was tailored to meet the needs of those living in Tamil Nadu and neighbouring states and in that respect the organisers achieved their main object by providing opportunities for chess players to get into the FIDE rating list and also the already rated ones to scale high in the world chart.

International Arbiter and former National Subjunior Champion S Paul Arokiaraj of Chennai Port Trust was designated as Chief Arbiter of the tournament. Incidentally, the last year tournament also started on the same date in 2005.

Round One results (upto 15 tables) Table No White Point Result Black Point 1 Bhavani S 0 Lost to Singh D P 1 2 Laxman R.R 1 Beat Chaitanya Sravanthi D 0 3 Chandan Kumar Samantray 0 Lost to Murugan K 1 4 Ravi T.S 1 Beat Deepa A 0 5 Dhivaahar Y 0 Lost to Sudhakar Babu N 1 6 Anil Kumar OT 1 Beat Sivarajan Dr N 0 7 Eazhisaichelvan R A 0 Lost to Shyam Nikhil 1 8 Shantharam K.V 1 Beat Ganesh P 0 9 Gourav Sharan 0 Lost to Ram S Krishnan 1 10 Vinoth Kumar M 1 Beat Harihara Sudan M 0 11 Harish Naidu 0 Lost to Aswath R 1 12 Debashis Das 1 Beat Hrishikesan S 0 13 Jagadeeshraju M 0 Lost to Hariharan V 1 14 Arun Karthik R. 1 Beat Jagadhambal M 0 15 James Stephen 0 Lost to Nitin S 1

UNI