P. Shyaam Nikhil is a man of few words. He underplays his abilities as a chess player and prefers to stay in the background.
Shyaam turned up for the eighth round match against top seed M. Karthikeyan at the Khadi India National chess championship on Sunday, trying to get over a 22-move drubbing in the previous round.
As it turned out, Karthikeyan, a two-time champion, had an off-day. He faltered more than once in his search of the best continuation, and Shyaam proved unforgiving in 48 moves.
While the result may have helped Shyaam get his confidence back, it surely did leader Aravindh Chithambaram a big favour. The second seed stayed on course for the title, beating third seed S. L. Narayanan in a violent thriller lasting 56 moves.
The defeats of Karthikeyan and Narayanan, coupled with a drawn result involving M.R. Lalith Babu, who was joint second overnight, doubled Aravindh’s lead to one point.
With five rounds to go, Aravindh leads with six points. Arghyadip, who defeated Himanshu Sharma, joined Lalith in second spot. Karthikeyan and Narayanan, who remained on 4.5, slipped to the joint-fourth.
In the upset of the event so far, Shyaam reaped reward for being solid and organised. Facing the Sicilian Najdorf, Karthikeyan’s decision to castle on the king-side instead of blocking the advancement of Shyaam’s king-side pawn proved critical: it allowed Shyaam to proceed on a definite line of attack.
Around the 30th move, Shyaam offered his rook for a knight and reinforced his grip on the proceedings.
After much simplification, Shyaam was left with a knight and six pawns against Karthikeyan’s rook and three pawns. Shyaam went on bring his queen back while preventing Karthikeyan’s pawn from reaching the last-rank square.
At this point, the champion gave up.
The results: Eighth round: Aravindh Chithambaram (6) bt S. L. Narayanan (4.5) in 56 moves; M. Karthikeyan (4.5) lost to P. Shyaam Nikhil (3.5) in 48 moves; Abhijit Kunte (3.5) drew with M. R. Lalith Babu (5) in 28 moves; Arghyadip Das (5) bt Himanshu Sharma (2) in 74 moves; Swapnil Dhopade (4) drew with Debashis Das (4) in 59 moves; R.R. Laxman (4) drew with S. Nitin (4) in 44 moves; Sammed Shete (2.5) lost to Deepan Chakkravarthy (3.5) in 40 moves.
Ninth-round pairings: Lalith v Aravindh; Debashis v Arghadip; Himanshu v Karthikeyan; Narayanan v Sammed; Nitin v Kunte; Shyaam v Laxman; Deepan v Swapnil.