With masterly displays, Petroleum teams justified the tag of ‘favourites’ against nearest contenders and decisively inched closer to regaining a ‘double’ in the National team chess championship here on Sunday.
With three rounds to go, the women’s title stood virtually decided when Petroleum dismissed defending champion Air India 3-1 and maintained an all-win record after four rounds.
In the open section’s sixth round, Petroleum avenged the shock defeat suffered at the hands of Railways-A, here in 2016, with an impressive 3-1 verdict, after having tamed Railways-B 3.5-0.5, earlier in the day.
A draw will suffice
Now, even a draw against second seed Airport Authority of India is enough for Petroleum to ensure the title.
Surya Shekhar Ganguly outwitted Deepan Chakkravarthy after sacrificing a bishop for three pawns early in their Sicilian Defence game lasting 37 moves.
B. Adhiban, following his classic display against R.R. Laxman in the morning, outplayed P. Karthikeyan in a tactical battle in just 23 moves. G. N. Gopal and M. Karthikeyan drew with Swapnil Dhopade and M.S. Thej Kumar.
In what was seen as a title-deciding contest in the women’s section, Padmini’s dominant show against a rusty S. Vijayalakshmi was followed by Nisha’s effortless conquest of S. Meenakshi.
Eesha Karavade ensured a draw against Tania Sachdev and Soumya Swaminathan shared the point with Bhakti Kulkarni.
Between them, Padmini and Vijayalakshmi hold 10 National women titles. But on this day, their clash in Sicilian Defence turned out to be hopelessly one-sided.
Vijayalakshmi, a six-time National champion, overlooked the loss of a bishop by the 34th move and resigned 11 moves later.
Seizing control
Nisha seized control against Meenakshi — Vijayalakshmi’s younger sister — after sweeping two kingside pawns in quick succession.
A little later, the loss of a third pawn pushed Meenakshi to the brink of defeat. She delayed the inevitable by some random moves before accepting defeat in 54 moves.
Important results: Open: Sixth round: Petroleum (12) bt Railways-A (9) 3-1; Bengal-A (8) lost to Airports Authority of India (10) 0-4; Odisha-A (7) lost to LIC (10) 0.5-3.5; Railways-B (9) bt BSNL (7) 4-0; Tamil Nadu (6) lost to Air India (8) 0.5-3.5.
Fifth round: Railways-B lost to Petroleum 0.5-3.5; Air India lost to Railways-A 0.5-3.5; Odhisha-KIIT lost to AAI 0-4; LIC bt Bengal-B 2.5-0.5; Andhra Pradesh lost to Bengal-A 0.5-3.5; Odisha-A bt Maharashtra-A 3-1.
Women: Fourth round: Petroleum (8) bt Air India (5) 3-1; Tamil Nadu (4) lost to AAI (6) 1-3; Odisha MCF-5 (4) lost to LIC (6) 1-3; Odisha-KIIT (5) bt Karnataka (3) 4-0; Telangana (4) bt Punjab (2) 2.5-1.5; Uttar Pradesh (3) bt Himachal Pradesh (1) 4-0.