New Delhi: Grandmaster and former champion Abhijeet Gupta remained on course for regaining the crown after a crushing victory against defending champion Deep Sengupta in the seventh round of the Commonwealth Chess championship that concluded here.
With his seventh victory in a row, Abhijeet also crossed a personal landmark as the former world junior champion could not recall the last time he had won first seven games in an International event.
The victory means Gupta increased his lead to a full points as the nearest contenders for the crown are now on six points. Grandmasters Abhijit Kunte, Deepan Chakkravarthy and International Masters Arghyadip Das and S Ravi Teja are all sharing the second spot with six points apiece.
The day belonged to Gupta once again he won in just over two hours, outplaying Sengupta right from the opening. For the records it was a sharp Botwinnik variation that Sengupta employed as black but got in to early troubles as his king got stuck.
The middle game was easy for Gupta who just had to divert his forces against centralised black king and the finale came through a picturesque piece sacrifice that ripped apart black’s position. The end came soon after as the attack was irresistible.
Ravi Teja recorded the biggest upset of the day defeating Sahaj Grover in a game where fortunes favoured the former. It was a Queen pawn game wherein Grover equalised comfortably as black and spurned down Ravi Teja’s draw offer in a balanced endgame. However, soon after, Grover missed a small tactical stroke that led to a pawn less endgame wherein Ravi Teja excelled.
Abhijit Kunte accounted for N Sanjay and the former national champion showed his brilliance with white pieces. Chakkravarthy too played a finely crafted game to beat Himanshu Sharma.
Among the Women, Padmini Rout remained on course for gold medal after she was held to a draw by C R GKrishna. With 5.5 points in her kitty, Padmini enjoys a half point lead over other women players.
Important results round 7 (Indians otherwise stated):
GM Abhijeet Gupta (7) beat GM Deep Sengupta (5.5); IM Ravi Teja S (6) beat GM Sahaj Grover (5); GM Ziaur Rahman of Bangladesh (5.5) drew with GM Sriram Jha (5.5); GM Deepan Chakkaravarthy (6) beat IM Himanshu Sharma (5); Abhijit Kunte (6) beat Sanjay N (5); Vignesh Nr (5.5) drew with IM Narayanan S L (5.5); IM Arghyadip Das (6) beat Praneeth Surya (5); IM Krishna CRG (5.5) drew with Padmini Rout (5.5); IM Akash G (5.5) drew with IM Rathnakaran K (5.5); Himal Gusain (4.5) lost to Lalith Babu M R (5.5); GM Aravindh Chithambaram (5.5) beat IM Nisha Mohota (4.5); Hemant Sharma (5) drew with GM Ankit Rajpara (5); WGM Bhakti Kulkarni (4.5) lost to IM Ramnath Bhuvanesh (5.5); IM Van Den Heever Donovan of South Africa (5) drew with GM Laxman R R (5); Sekar B (5) drew with IM Akshat Khamparaia (5); Siva Mahadevan (5.50 beat GM Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury (4.5); Athul Krishna S (4.5) lost to IM Nitin S (5.5); Sai Agni Jeevitesh (4) lost to GM Karthikeyan Murali (5); Matta Vinay Kumar (4) lost to GM Niaz Murshed of Bangladesh (5); IM Saptarshi Roy (4.5) drew with Abhishek Das (4.5).
