Negi inches closer towards title

New Delhi: World`s second youngest Grandmaster Parimarjan Negi defeated Grandmaster Arun Prasad in the 12th and penultimate round to extend his sole lead to a full point in the REC National Premier Chess Championship here on Tuesday. With this crucial victory, Negi took his point tally to nine points from a possible 12 and he just need half a point from the final round tomorrow to win title. Playing with black pieces in Semi-Slav opening, Negi took the control early in the game and not allowed his opponent any breathing space to seal the match in just 31 moves. Top seed G N Gopal agreed to split points with former national champion Abhijit Kunte after the mandatory 25 moves. Gopal along with former world under-14 champion Vidit Santosh Gujrathi and defending champion Grandmaster B Adbhian are now at joint second position with eight points. Playing white side of Fianchetto variation of King`s Indian Defence, Vidit got better off seven time national champion Grandmaster Praveen Thipsay in 39 moves while Adhiban crushed team mate S Kidambi in just 22 moves in Queen`s Gambit declined game. In other important encounters in the twelfth round, International Master M R Lalith Babu held fifth seeded Grandmaster Tejas Bakre of Air India while M R Venkatesh got the measure of Grandmaster Deepan Chakkravarthy in 25 moves.Continuing his fine run, Karnataka youngster G A Stany held third seed Grandmaster Deep Sengupta to a creditable draw while Navin Kanna stunned triple Grandmaster norm holder M S Thejkumar of Railways. International Master Vikramaditya Kamble overcame Grandmaster Neelotpal Das and D P Singh held team mate Grandmaster R R Laxman in the 12 round battle. In the final round, Negi will take on Bakre while Gopal and Vidit are pitted against Adhiban and Kunte respectively.Results (Round-12): GM Arun Prasad S of PSPB (7) lost to GM Parimarjan Negi of PSPB (9); GM Abhijit Kunte of PSPB (7.5) drew with GM Gopal G N of PSPB (8); IM Vidit Santosh Gujarathi of Maharashtra (8) beat GM Praveen Thipsay of Maharashtra (7.5); IM Lalith Babu M R of Andhra Pradesh (7.5) drew with GM Tejas Bakre of Air India (7.5); GM Adhiban B of PSPB (8) beat GM Kidambi S of PSPB (6.5); IM Venkatesh M R of PSPB (7.5) beat GM Deepan Chakkravarthy of Tamilnadu (6.5); IM Shyam Sundar of Tamilnadu (7) drew with IM Vaibhav Suri of Delhi (7); GM Deep Sengutpa of West Bengal (6.5) drew with Stany GA of Karnataka (6.5); IM Vikramaditya Kamble of Railways (6.5) beat GM Neelotpal Das of PSPB (6); WGM Soumya Swaminathan of Maharashtra (5.5) lost to IM Sethuraman S P of Tamilnadu (6.5); IM Singh D P of Railways (6) drew with GM Laxman R R of Railways (6); IM Thejkumar MS of Railways (5.5) lost to Navin Kanna T U of Tamilnadu (6.5); Arjun Tiwari of Railways (5.5) lost to IM Konguvel P of PSPB (6); IM Saptarshi Roy of Railways (6) beat IM Debashis Das of Orissa (5); IM Prathamesh Mokal of Maharashtra (6) beat IM Sudhakar Babu of Tamilnadu (5); IM Karthikeyan P of Tamilnadu (6) beat WGM Padmini Rout of Orissa (5); IM Shyam Nikil of Tamilnadu (6) beat IM Rahul Sangma of Delhi (4.5); Matta Vinay Kumar of Andhra Pradesh (5) drew with FM Ramakrishna J of Andhra Pradesh (5); Shashikant Kutwal of Railways (4) beat FM Rajesh VAV of Tamilnadu (4.5); IM Vishnu Prasanna of Tamilnadu (4) lost to IM Suvrajit Saha of Railways (5); IM Dinesh Sharma of LIC (4.5) drew with Akash Thakur of Railways (4.5); Anilkumar O T of Kerala (2.5) beat Joshi G B of Air India (4). PTI