Ramesh, Harika crowned Commonwealth champions

Dec 11:  Grandmaster R. B. Ramesh got a share of luck in addition to his resolute effort, which helped him to get past top seed Surya Sekhar Ganguly, to clinch his maiden Commonwealth Chess title here on Monday.

Ramesh, who was sharing the foursome lead after the ninth round on Sunday, whipped International Master (IM) Vikramaditya Kamble in quicktime while Ganguly overpowered IM K. Rathnakaran, to pave the way for Ramesh to get hold of elusive gold medal and trophy, to be joined at the top alongwith Ramesh with 8.5 points after final round.

After Ramesh recorded victory over Kamble, Ganguly favoured his Indian Oil colleague by outplaying K. Rathnakaran, who was on 7 points after ninth round and needed a win to emerge as the overall champion.

Ramesh got the top position owing to a better progressive score. He had to share the winner’s purse with Ganguly, who contented with the silver medal. Both got richer by Rs 1,37,500 each.

Abhijeet Gupta, who became the country’s 17th GM on Sunday, finished third to claim the bronze medal and prize money of Rs 75,000.

“I had no psychological pressure. I was enjoying my games during the tournament,” Ramesh said after winning the championship.

On his final round game, former British Open champion Ramesh said, “I have a good record against him in the past even though I lost to him in our last meeting at Dubai Open earlier this year.”

In the women’s section, IM Dronavalli Harika won the top honour to claim his second successive title ahead of local star Tania Sachdev and WGM Nisha Mohota. She finished fifth overall here with a total of 7.5 points and won Rs 40,000. India’s Pon Krithika and Preethi earned their first Women’s International Master norms. Abhijeet Gupta also claimed the gold medal in the Under-20 category.

Indians players rule the roost in the just concluded Commonwealth championship as they pocketed 44 medals in totality out of 45 in the fray in various age-groups. England’s GM Gawain Jones deprived India from a possible clean sweep by clinching a bronze in the under-20 category.

FINAL ROUND RESULTS (MEN): Surya Shekhar Ganguly (8.5) bt K. Ratnakaran (7.5); R.B. Ramesh (8.5) bt Vikramaditya Kamble (7.5); D. Harika (7.5) drew with Sriram Jha (7.5); Abhijeet Gupta (8) bt P. Karthikeyan (7); M.S. Thejkumar (7) lost to Abhijit Kunte (7.5); Abdulla Al-Rakib (Ban) (7.5) bt Nisha Mohota (6.5); Aleksandar Wohl (Aus) (7) drew with Neelotpal Das (7); R.R. Laxman (7.5) bt Reefat Bin Sattar (Ban) (6.5); M.R. Venkatesh (6.5) lost to Himanshu Sharma (7.5); Tania Sachdev (7) drew with S. Kidambi (7); Mas Hafizulhelmi (Mal) (6.5) lost to Niaz Murshed (Ban) (7); Shashikant Kutwal (7) drew with S. Arun Prasad (7); Dibyendu Barua (7) bt P. Konguvel (6); Gawain Jones (Eng) (7) bt Abhishek Das(6); Prathamesh Mokal ( 6.5) drew with G. Rohit (6.5);Aswin Jayaram (7) bt Akshat Khamparia (6); David Smerdon (Aus) (7) bt Soumya Swaminathan (6); Tejas Bakre (7) bt S. Nitin (6); G.B. Prakash (6.5) drew with P.D.S. Girinath (6.5); Deep Sengupta (7) bt Sahaj Grover (6).

STANDINGS

U-20: 1. Abhijieet Gupta, 2. S. Arun Prasad, 3. Gawain Jones (Eng). U-18: 1. P. Karthikeyan, 2. Aswin Jayaram, 3. G. Rohit. U-16: 1. Parimarjan Negi, 2. R. Ashwath, 3. S. Nitin. U-14: 1. K. Priyadarshan, 2. Mehar Chinna Reddy, 3. Aditya Udeshi. U-12: 1. Sahaj Grover, 2. G. V. Sai Krishna, 3. Fenil Shah. U-10: 1. Vaibhav Suri, 2. Girish Koushik, 3. C. H. Mohineesh. U-8: 1. C. H. Meghna, 2. Harshal Shahi, 3. Ravi Haria.

Over-50: 1. Shekhar Sahu, 2. Dilip Das, 3. Ravi Hegde.

Women: 1. Harika, 2. Tania, 3. Nisha.

Girls: U-20: 1. Kruttika Nadig, 2. Eesha Karavade, 3. P. Priya. U-18: 1. Kiran Manisha Mohanty, 2. R. Preethi, 3. Mary Ann Gomes. U-16: 1. Pon N. Krithika, 2. Tejaswini Reddy, 3. Ch. Divyasri. U-14: 1. Padmini Rout, 2. Shristi Shetty, 3. Shalmali Gagare. U-12: 1. Pratyusha Bodda, 2. Priyanka Kumari, 3. K. Sai Nirupama.