Harikrishna outplays Pravin Thipsay

Grandmaster Pendyala Harikrishna defeated GM Pravin Thipsay in the opening round of the 39th National 'A' Chess championship in Nagpur on Thursday.

Harikrishna, who is the youngest participant in the tournament, demolished the Kings Indian defence of Thipsay. He initially seized and doubled the rooks on D file. However, Thipsay's king move on his 23rd move proved to be a mistake which cost him a pawn in a tactical stroke when he had obviously overlooked.

Thipsay won back the pawn but reached a loss ending.

GM K Sasikiran (ONGC) and Woman Grandmaster Vijaylakshmi (Indian Airlines) played a Ruy Lopez game in which the latter seemed to have the upper hand. However, in severe time trouble she blundered a piece and lost the game in 35 moves.

In other game, B T Murlikrishnan (Railways) opened with his queen pawn and in Chigorin defence game in which he got a huge plus against the cramped and undeveloped position of Vishal Sareen (LIC). The former failed to manage the time properly and lost game.

International Master N K Mishra (TISCO) was another unlucky player who fell victim to time trouble. In Queen's Indian game against Shriram Jha (LIC), he reached a level ending in which both sides had one rook and five pawns but Mishra overstepped the time limit.

In a game between between two IMs, S S Ganguly outplayed D V Prasad (both IOC) and won a pawn on the 24th move with a neat combination and won the resultant ending on the 46th move.