BhavarlalKhantabai Jain Multipurpose Foundation 51st National Indian Premier Chess Championship

All the seven games in action

A rest day after the sixth round had changed the entire status of theBhavarlalKhantabai Jain Multipurpose Foundation 51st Indian Premier Chess Championship, being held at Jain Hills, Jalgoan.

With both co leaders GM Sasikiran Krishnan and GM LalithBabu(both from Petroleum Sports Board) losing one game each in either eighth or ninth round, things turned topsyturvy. At the end of the ninth round.LalithBabu snatched the lead with 7.5 points. Sasikiran is trailing by half a point and former under 16 world champion B Adhibanof PSPB hangs on to third place with 6.5 points.

In the eighth round, IM AkshatKamparia of Railways stunned LalithBabu and the spectators by sacrificing his pieces at will, including his queen. In the Bogo Indian defence by Lalith, Akshat’s queen sacrifice was unexpected, but Lalith accepted it, not visualising the moves turning up later. Akshat offered a knight sacrifice, which was also accepted by his opponent. Only when Akshat came forward to donate his bishop, Lalith realised the danger of getting checkmated and resigned. Third placedAdhiban was also shocked by IM AshwinJayaram of Tamil Nadu, making matters complicated.

Loss by LalithBabu helped Sasikiran to emerge leader, after eight rounds, as he drew with his game against DeepanChakravarthy of Tamil Nadu. But, in the ninth round, more surprises showered in, when Adhiban defeated Sasikiran in 37 moves. Sasikiran’s rook exchange for a bishop on the 15th move did not bear any fruitful result. Top seeded ParimarjanNegi of PSPB suffered another loss at the hands of GM Vishnu Prasanna of Tamil Nadu, in the ninth round.LalithBabu earned a full point by beating AswinJayaram to wrest the lead. With four more rounds remaining, the tournament is interestingly poised for a good finish.

Ranking after 9 rounds

Rank		Name	IRtg	Pts	Wins	Res.	SB	vict	Rtg+/-	Ra	Rp
1	GM	LalithBabu M.R.	2569	7½	7	0	27.00	7	17	2457	2730
2	GM	Sasikiran Krishnan	2666	7	6	0	25.75	6	5	2485	2705
3	GM	Adhiban B.	2569	6½	5	0	23.75	5	10	2481	2647
4	GM	DeepanChakkravarthy J.	2462	6	3	0	22.25	3	18	2491	2616
5	IM	Thejkumar M. S.	2452	6	4	0	18.00	4	17	2472	2597
6	IM	AshwinJayaram	2487	5	3	0	20.75	3	8	2510	2553
7	IM	Debashis Das	2507	4	2	1	13.75	2	-10	2470	2427
8	GM	Vishnu Prasanna. V	2523	4	2	0	17.00	2	-5	2525	2482
9	GM	NegiParimarjan	2671	3½	1	½	15.75	1	-29	2507	2427
10	IM	ShyamNikil P.	2420	3½	0	½	14.00	0	-1	2501	2421
11	IM	Stany G.A.	2397	3	1	1	11.50	1	-2	2504	2379
12	IM	AkshatKhamparia	2409	3	2	0	14.75	2	-5	2495	2370
13	IM	G. Akash	2343	2	0	½	8.25	0	-8	2494	2274
14	IM	Rathnakaran K.	2411	2	0	½	7.50	0	-15	2495	2275

Former Under 16 world champion GM Adhiban shocked second seeded GM K Sasikiran in the ninth round