Mumbai: Playing in front of a packed home crowd, Pune Attackers, owned by the Goel Ganga Group were an inspired lot and clinched the inaugural Johnson Tiles Maharashtra Chess League 2013 by defeating Jalgaon Battlers owned by Jain Irrigation -3.5-2.5 in the finals. Aggressive play, some smart board order had the Pune Attacker cruising comfortably without any hiccups. Interestingly it was the higher rated players who prevailed over their lesser rated opponents in a pulsating final.
The six team event which was played at the PYC Hindu Gymkhana, cosponsored by Amanora and organized by MCA and PDCC started as a Round Robin league and had Pune Attackers, Jalgaon Battlers, Ahmednagar Checkers and Nagpur Royals advancing to the semi-finals. In the knock-out stage Pune Attackers and Jalgaon Batlers triumphed to reach the finals.
The Board order is crucial as the decision to field which players with Whites can play a decisive role in the eventual outcome. It was an interesting decision by Pune Coach IM D V Prasad to field Padmini Rout, Lalith Babu and Amardeep Bartakke with Whites, while Jalgaon Battlers opted to field their stronger players with Whites.
Lalith Babu opened the Pune account with a decisive victory against WGM Meenakshi S. Winning after 45 moves he quipped “ I was lucky as I was expecting a stronger opponent and had a comfortable victory. Our strategy was to hit with White pieces and it worked superbly for us.”
Padmini Rout also scored a superb hit with the White pieces, defeating Sameer Kathmale after 59 moves of a Caro-Kann Defence.
Akshayraj Kore , Pune’s star player interestingly played with Blacks against talented teenager N Srinath. It was also surprising to watch Kore opting for the centre counter Gambit against Srinath and for most part it appeared that Kore was in the driver’s seat. However Srinath fought back and the game was stretched for 95 moves before a draw was sealed. Later Kore said” I was a bit tense and was constantly keeping track on the other five boards” an indication about the pressure situation for the players battling for pride and the title.
Swati Ghate also rose magnificiently to the occasion with the Black pieces and held higher ranked S Narayanan to a draw after 56 moves. In fact the only move that backfired for the Pune Attackers was the loss of Himashu Sharma with the Black pieces to young GM Vidit Santosh Gujrathi.
Amardeep Bartakke also helped Pune’s cause by holding higher rated IM Eesha Karavade to a draw after appearing in an inferior position for most part of the game. In all it was a great effort by the Pune Attackers.
The award for the Best Player of the League was won by Ahmednager Checkers player, GM M R Venkatesh, who scored an incredible 7/7, a no mean achievement considering the presence of high Elo and titles in the event. Teenage WGM Padmini Rout of Pune Attackers was adjudged the best woman player. Venkatsh happy with his performance commented “ Interestingly it was my team decision to field me with whites pieces and I am glad that I could convert it all into victories.”
In the play offs for the third and fourth position Ahmednagar Checkers blanked out Nagpur Royals by a whopping 5-1 margin. For the Ahmednagar checkers, Mithil Ajgaonkar stunned IM Swapnil Dhopade, GM Venkatesh M R scored over GM Sahaj Grover, Rucha Pujari shocked WGM Soumya Swaminathan while GM Tejas Bakre was the lone scorer for the Nagpur Royals, accounting for IM Tania Sachdev.
