AP boy Hemal Varshan shocks GM Sayantan Das in 62nd National Chess Championship

The 62nd National Chess Championship is being organised by Andhra Chess Association at the Vignan University campus in Guntur

Hyderabad: Top-seed P Iniyan of Tamil Nadu was held to a draw by Dilip Bhoir Paras of Maharashtra in a shocking result of the third round of the 62nd National Chess Championship, organised by Andhra Chess Association at the Vignan University campus in Guntur on Wednesday.

In another major upset, GM Sayantan Das of Railways was upset by twelve-year-old Andhra’s promising player Andamala Hemal Varshan. Twenty-seven players have three full points in their kitty.

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In the semi-Slav defence by Dilip, Iniyan’s two successive incorrect moves, followed by a nice exchange sacrifice by Dilip, handed over the advantage to Dilip. But his wrong bishop sacrifice offer, aiming for a checkmate, helped Iniyan to recover. Iniyan’s pawn promotion plan was thwarted by Dilip by the knight sacrifice, and the peace treaty was signed after seventy-one moves.

Twelve-year-old Andamala Hemal Varshan, from Andhra Pradesh, shocked GM Sayantan Das in a Sicilian defence game, adopted by Sayantan. Hemal had two extra pawns to his credit in a rook and minor piece ending, and Sayantan resigned when Hemal sacrificed his knight to promote his pawn to the eighth rank.

In the Ruy Lopez opening, Nilsu Pattnayak of Odisha maintained neutrality until move no. 30, against the seasoned second-seeded Grand Master Surya Sekhar Ganguly of Petroleum Sports Board Promotion. After the exchange of queens on the 28th move, Ganguly had four connected pawns to the five isolated pawns of Nilsu in a rook and minor pieces ending. On the 31st move, Nilsu committed hara-kiri by capturing a centre pawn unnecessarily. It made the job simple for Ganguly to win the game after a few more moves.

Though five-time Commonwealth champion Abhijeet Gupta put up a below-par performance against the Tamil Nadu under-15 and under-17 champion S. Haridev, he was fortunate to get away with a win today.

Abhijeet left his queen hanging on the 25th move, but Haridev did not capture it for reasons best known to him only. Both committed consecutive blunders to shift the favour to the other player, and it was Abhijeet who had the last laugh, ultimately.

In a similar fashion, Andhra’s leading player, GM Lalith Babu, had ups and downs in his Trompowsky attack game against Vedant Garg of Chhattisgarh. It was Vedant who made more mistakes to lose the game in forty-five moves.

The results: Placings after 3rd round: 1. Surya Shekhar Ganguly, 2. Aronyak Ghosh, 3. Aaditya Dhingra, 4. Abhijeet Gupta, 5. P. Ajay Santhosh Reddy, 6. Harshith Ranjan Sahu, 7. Ankit Ray, 8. Mahindrakar Indrajeet, 9. Ayush Sharma, 10. Audi Ameya, 11. L. Srihari, 12. M.R. Lalit Babu.