Round 07+08: Railways almost home

by Priyadarshan Banjan - 15/02/2016

They have left no stone unturned this time and are leading comfortably, but anything can happen in chess -- there are many a slip between the cup and the lip. Railways-A is one solid result away from the title with Airport Authority of India on their heels. On the other hand, PSPB Women's team are hardly facing any resistance. ChessBase India brings you an illustrated report.

Round 07+08: Railways almost home

Team Railways-A aren't in the mood to be denied this time. Taking full advantage of PSPB's erratic form, they are comfortably leading the table with six wins and two draws.

Their closest rivals AAI have conceded a draw more and trail by a game-point; however, anything can happen in chess.

That's the look Railways-A players were left giving to the ease with with they are steaming ahead. In the seventh and the eighth rounds, they won very comfortably.

The key to their good performance is the way their team has gelled so incredibly well. They weren't provided with star facilities like their more fancied colleagues and won their most important clashes.

Rathnakaran essayed a beautiful game against Karthik Vap of Tamil Nadu-B in the seventh round to continue with his splendid run.

White to play.

[Event "Indian National Team Chess Championship-"]
[Site "Bhubaneswar"]
[Date "2016.02.12"]
[Round "7"]
[White "Rathnakaran, K."]
[Black "Karthik, V Ap"]
[Result "1-0"]
[WhiteElo "2463"]
[BlackElo "2378"]
[PlyCount "45"]
[EventDate "2016.??.??"]
[Source "MonRoi"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. c3 Nf6 5. d3 a6 6. Bb3 Ba7 7. h3 d6 8. Nbd2
O-O 9. Nf1 Be6 10. Bc2 h6 11. g4 d5 12. Qe2 dxe4 13. dxe4 b5 14. Nh4 Nh5 (14...
Nxe4 15. Qxe4 Qxh4 16. Qh7#) 15. Nf5 Nf4 16. Qf3 b4 17. N1g3 Bc4 18. Nh5 bxc3
19. Nxf4 cxb2 20. Bxb2 exf4 21. Rd1 Qb8 22. Qc3 Qb4 23. Ne7+ 1-0

Debashis Das of PSPB had managed to outwit GM R.R. Laxman in the seventh round, but his team's fortunes didn't improve. In the eighth round, they lost to Air India 3-1.

It all began with Debashis crumbling in the face of 'the Srinath'...

[Event "Indian National Team Chess Championship-"]
[Site "Bhubaneswar"]
[Date "2016.02.13"]
[Round "8"]
[White "Debashis, Das"]
[Black "Narayanan, Srinath"]
[Result "0-1"]
[WhiteElo "2487"]
[BlackElo "2469"]
[PlyCount "54"]
[EventDate "2016.??.??"]
[Source "MonRoi"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 c5 3. d5 g6 4. Nc3 Bg7 5. Nf3 O-O 6. e4 e6 7. Be2 d6 8. Nd2 Re8
9. O-O Na6 10. f4 exd5 11. cxd5 Nc7 12. a4 b6 13. Kh1 Ba6 14. Bxa6 Nxa6 15. Re1
Nb4 16. Nc4 Rb8 17. Re2 a6 18. Bd2 b5 19. axb5 axb5 20. Nxd6 Qxd6 21. e5 Qb6
22. exf6 Qxf6 23. Rxe8+ Rxe8 24. Qf1 c4 25. Re1 Rb8 26. Nxb5 Nd3 27. d6 Qxb2
0-1

...while Swayangsu Satyaprayan put it across Kidambi.

Although Tejas Bakre lost to Deep Sengupta, Swayams sent Arun Prasad to leave PSPB singing Viva la Vida.

Although Airport Authority of India were in the race along with Railways-A, they were facing the stronger teams while their competitors were already done with eliminating the main contenders.

Niranjan Navalgund of Tamil Nadu-A

IM S. Nitin of Railways-B

PSPB Women's team continued with their demolition job in a scarily empty field.

Something needs to be done about the number of teams in the women's section -- eleven only -- don't you think?

The final round games are in progress now and you can watch them LIVE!

Open Rankings after Round 08:

Rk.	SNo	Team	Games	+	=	-	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5
1	2	Railway Sports Promotion Board - A	8	6	2	0	14	24,5	0	139,0	155,5
2	4	Airport Authority of India	8	5	3	0	13	24,0	0	137,0	148,5
3	3	Air India	8	5	2	1	12	19,5	0	145,0	163,0
4	1	Petroleum Sports Promotion Board	8	5	1	2	11	20,5	2	144,0	159,5
5	5	Railway Sports Promotion Board - B	8	5	1	2	11	20,5	0	143,5	157,5
6	10	West Bengal	8	5	0	3	10	20,5	0	123,5	136,0
7	6	Life Insurance Corporation	8	4	2	2	10	19,0	0	122,5	134,0
8	12	Odisha	8	4	2	2	10	18,5	0	119,0	131,5
9	8	Tamil Nadu - B	8	3	4	1	10	18,0	0	134,5	149,0
10	11	Gujarat	8	5	0	3	10	16,5	0	135,0	147,0

Women's Rankings after Round 06:

Rk.	SNo	FED	Team	Games	+	=	-	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5
1	1		Petroleum Sports Promotion Board	6	6	0	0	12	22,5	0	69,5	79,0
2	2		Air India	6	5	0	1	10	20,0	0	70,5	80,0
3	3		Tamil Nadu	6	4	0	2	8	16,0	0	76,0	85,5
4	4		Odisha - KIIT University	6	3	0	3	6	12,0	0	77,5	82,5
5	5		Bihar	6	3	0	3	6	9,5	0	76,5	81,5
6	6		Life Insurance Corporation	6	2	1	3	5	11,5	0	68,5	75,0
7	7		Odisha	6	2	1	3	5	10,0	2	74,5	81,0
8	8		Gujarat	6	2	1	3	5	10,0	0	64,0	69,0
9	9		Andhra Pradesh	6	2	1	3	5	9,0	0	48,5	53,5
10	10		Goa	6	0	2	4	2	6,5	0	51,0	56,0
11	11		Telengana	6	0	2	4	2	5,0	0	52,5	59,0

View the Pairings for Open Round 08 here.

View the Pairings for Women Round 07 here.

Photos by ChessBase India

Photos by ChessBase India