Nat. Teams 05+06: Air India, AAI fall under the speeding train

by Priyadarshan Banjan - 05/02/2017

Defending champions Railways-A are steaming ahead to win their second consecutive title. The fourth day of play was a double round and Railways-A took on the two main contenders — Air India and Airport Authority of India. Check out how they fared.

Nat. Teams 05+06: Air India, AAI fall under the speeding Train

After four rounds of play at the Indian Team Championships 2017, Air India and Railways-A were tied for the first place with eight match points each, while close on their heels was Airport Authority of India, who had lost to Air India in the fourth round.

The stage was all set for the most crucial stage in the tournament. The fourth day of the tournament was a double-round Sunday. Air India took on the defending champions, Railways-A. While AAI had to face Railways-B.

Round 5 on 2017/02/05 at 10.00 AM
Bo.	3	Air India		Rtg	-	2	Indian Railway A		Rtg	½:3½
1.1	IM		Satyapragyan, Swayangsu	2442	-	GM		Deepan, Chakkravarthy J.	2480	0 - 1
1.2	IM		Swayams, Mishra	2460	-	IM		Thejkumar, M. S.	2461	0 - 1
1.3	IM		Narayanan, Srinath	2474	-	GM		Swapnil, S. Dhopade	2534	½ - ½
1.4	GM		Bakre, Tejas	2457	-	IM		Himanshu, Sharma	2484	0 - 1
Bo.	4	Indian Railway B		Rtg	-	1	Airport Authority of India		Rtg	1:03
2.1	IM		Nitin, S.	2428	-	IM		Puranik, Abhimanyu	2481	½ - ½
2.2	IM		Das, Arghyadip	2416	-	IM		Stany, G.A.	2500	0 - 1
2.3	IM		Rathnakaran, K.	2407	-	GM		Shyam, Sundar M.	2554	0 - 1
2.4	GM		Laxman, R.R.	2409	-	GM		Sunilduth Lyna, Narayanan	2524	½ - ½

The big match between the leaders turned out to be a one-sided affair as the defending champions clipped the wings of the high-flying Air India and handed them a sound thrashing.

GM Deepan Chakravarthy defeated IM Swayangsu Satyapragyan with black.

Black to move. White just played Rd2-d1. What had he missed?

[Event "37th National Team Chess Championship 2"]
[Site "Bhopal"]
[Date "2017.02.05"]
[Round "5.1"]
[White "Satyapragyan, Swayangsu"]
[Black "Deepan, Chakkravarthy J"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "B06"]
[WhiteElo "2442"]
[BlackElo "2480"]
[PlyCount "62"]
[EventDate "2017.02.02"]
[EventType "team"]
[EventRounds "9"]
[EventCountry "IND"]
[SourceDate "2003.06.08"]
[WhiteTeam "Air India"]
[BlackTeam "Indian Railway A"]

1. e4 g6 2. d4 Bg7 3. Nf3 d6 4. Bc4 Nf6 5. Qe2 O-O 6. O-O Nc6 7. e5 Nd7 8. e6
Nb6 9. exf7+ Kh8 10. Bb3 Bg4 11. c3 e5 12. dxe5 Nxe5 13. Nbd2 Nxf7 14. h3 Bd7
15. Ne4 Qe7 16. Re1 Rae8 17. Qf1 Ne5 18. Nxe5 Qxe5 19. Bd2 Qf5 20. Ng3 Qb5 21.
Be3 Qxf1+ 22. Nxf1 Na4 23. Re2 Nc5 24. Bc2 a5 25. Rd2 Ne4 26. Rdd1 Nxf2 27. Rd4
{BC6 Re1} Ne4 28. Rdd1 Nf6 29. a4 Nd5 30. Bc1 Nb6 31. Ne3 0-1

Railways-A's Thejkumar also won a quickie against Swayams Mishra.

White to move

[Event "37th National Team Chess Championship 2"]
[Site "Bhopal"]
[Date "2017.02.05"]
[Round "5.2"]
[White "Thejkumar, M. S."]
[Black "Swayams, Mishra"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "D38"]
[WhiteElo "2461"]
[BlackElo "2460"]
[PlyCount "51"]
[EventDate "2017.02.02"]
[EventType "team"]
[EventRounds "9"]
[EventCountry "IND"]
[SourceDate "2003.06.08"]
[WhiteTeam "Indian Railway A"]
[BlackTeam "Air India"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 d5 4. Nc3 Bb4 5. Qb3 c5 6. dxc5 Nc6 7. Bg5 dxc4 8.
Qxc4 Qa5 9. Bxf6 gxf6 10. Rc1 Qxc5 11. Qh4 Ke7 12. g3 Bxc3+ 13. bxc3 b6 14. Bg2
Ba6 15. Nd2 Rac8 16. Ne4 Qe5 17. Rd1 Rhd8 18. Rxd8 Rxd8 19. f4 Qf5 20. g4 Qg6
21. Rf1 h5 22. f5 Qxg4 23. Qxf6+ Ke8 24. Rf2 Bc4 25. Ng5 Ne5 26. Bc6+ 1-0

And while IM Srinath Narayanan and GM Swapnil Dhopade settled for a draw, IM Himanshu Sharma added to Air India's woes by beating GM Tejas Bakre on the first board.

[Event "37th National Team Chess Championship 2"]
[Site "Bhopal"]
[Date "2017.02.05"]
[Round "5.4"]
[White "Himanshu, Sharma"]
[Black "Bakre, Tejas"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C68"]
[WhiteElo "2484"]
[BlackElo "2457"]
[PlyCount "97"]
[EventDate "2017.02.02"]
[EventType "team"]
[EventRounds "9"]
[EventCountry "IND"]
[SourceDate "2003.06.08"]
[WhiteTeam "Indian Railway A"]
[BlackTeam "Air India"]

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Bxc6 dxc6 5. O-O Bg4 6. h3 h5 7. d3 Qf6 8. Be3
Bxf3 9. Qxf3 Qxf3 10. gxf3 Bd6 11. Nd2 Ne7 12. Rfe1 Ng6 13. Kf1 Nf8 14. Ke2 Ne6
15. a4 a5 16. Rg1 f6 17. c3 c5 18. Nc4 Kf7 19. b4 cxb4 20. Nxd6+ cxd6 21. cxb4
axb4 22. Rgb1 Rhd8 23. Rxb4 Rd7 24. Rab1 Ke7 25. d4 exd4 26. Bxd4 Nxd4+ 27.
Rxd4 Rc8 28. Rb5 Rc5 29. Rdb4 Rxb5 30. Rxb5 g6 31. f4 Rc7 32. Kd3 Kd7 33. h4
Ke6 34. f5+ gxf5 35. Rxf5 Rh7 36. Rb5 Rc7 37. a5 Rc1 38. Rxb7 Rc5 39. a6 Ra5
40. a7 Ra3+ 41. Kc4 Ra1 42. Kb4 d5 43. Kb5 Ke5 44. exd5 Kxd5 45. Kb6 Kd6 46.
Rb8 Rb1+ 47. Ka6 Ra1+ 48. Kb7 Rb1+ 49. Kc8 1-0

Bo.	2	Indian Railway A		Rtg	-	1	Airport Authority of India		Rtg	3½: ½
1.1	IM		Karthikeyan, P.	2506	-	IM		Puranik Abhimanyu	2481	1-0
1.2	GM		Deepan, Chakkravarthy J.	2480	-	IM		Stany, G.A.	2500	1-0
1.3	IM		Thejkumar, M. S.	2461	-	GM		Shyam, Sundar M.	2554	1-0
1.4	GM		Swapnil, S. Dhopade	2534	-	GM		SL, Narayanan	2524	½ - ½
Bo.	3	Air India		Rtg	-	6	LIC		Rtg	2½:1½
2.1	IM		Swayams, Mishra	2460	-	IM		Deshmukh, Anup	2229	1-0
2.2	IM		Narayanan, Srinath	2474	-	GM		Sriram, Jha	2384	½ - ½
2.3	GM		Bakre, Tejas	2457	-	IM		Sharma, Dinesh	2272	1-0
2.4	IM		Shetty, Rahul	2216	-			Gajendra, Singh	1971	0 - 1

On the second board, Air India beat LIC 2.5-1.5, despite IM Rahul Shetty losing to untitled Gajendra Singh (1971).

Railways-A gleefully await AAI who arrived 10 minutes late and got crushed 3.5-0.5! Railways-A have all but sealed their second consecutive National Teams title. The remaining games look like a walk in the park.

In the women's section, AAI's WFM Rucha Pujari held top seed Air India's WGM Bhakti Kulkarni to a draw. For AAI, WFM Varshini V. also held AI's WIM Michelle Catherina.

But the Subbaraman sisters — Vijayalakshmi and Meenakshi —scored on the first two boards. Air Inda now lead with 7 match points.

Check out Viji's crushing victory on the top board against WFM Srija Seshadri, using the London System!

[Event "15th National Women Team Chess Champion"]
[Site "Bhopal"]
[Date "2017.02.05"]
[Round "4.1"]
[White "Vijayalakshmi, Subbaraman"]
[Black "Srija, Seshadri"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "D02"]
[WhiteElo "2379"]
[BlackElo "2164"]
[PlyCount "81"]
[EventDate "2017.02.02"]
[EventType "team"]
[EventRounds "7"]
[EventCountry "IND"]
[SourceDate "2003.06.08"]
[WhiteTeam "Air India"]
[BlackTeam "Airport Authority of India"]

1. d4 d5 2. Bf4 Nf6 3. Nf3 c5 4. e3 Nc6 5. Be2 Bf5 6. O-O e6 7. Nbd2 c4 8. Ne5
Qb6 9. b3 c3 10. Nb1 Rc8 11. g4 Be4 12. Nxc3 Nxe5 13. Nxe4 Nexg4 14. Ng3 h5 15.
c4 Ba3 16. c5 Qb4 17. h3 Nh6 18. Nxh5 Nf5 19. Kh2 Ne4 20. Ng3 Nfxg3 21. fxg3
Ke7 22. Bd3 g5 23. Be5 f6 24. Bxe4 fxe5 25. Bg2 Qc3 26. Qg4 Rcg8 27. Rae1 e4
28. Re2 Rg7 29. Bxe4 dxe4 30. Qxe4 Qb4 31. Qe5 Rgh7 32. Qd6+ Ke8 33. Qxe6+ Kd8
34. Qd6+ Ke8 35. Qe5+ Kd7 36. Qd5+ Ke8 37. Qe5+ Kd7 38. h4 gxh4 39. g4 Qb5 40.
Ref2 Qd3 41. Qd6+ 1-0

Also Read:

Pairings for Round 07

Pairings for Women's Round 05

PGN for Open and Women

All Photos by Gopakumar Sudhakaran