National A blind Round 8-10: It's a race to the finish between Kishan Gangolli and Subhendu Patra
Kishan Gangolli has been the five-time national champion of India in the visually challenged section. He has been known to dominate the national tournaments since quite some years now. However, in 2019 he isn't able to get the desired lead as Subhendu Patra from Odisha is right on his heels matching blow for blow. In their personal encounter which took place in the ninth round Kishan managed to win his game against Subhendu. However Patra came back strongly in the tenth round when he beat Swapnil Shah while Kishan had to draw his game against Marimuthu in an inferior position. As things stand we have two leaders Kishan Gangolli and Subhendu Patra with 8.0/10 and three rounds to go. Report of rounds 8 to 10 by chief arbiter Manjunatha Murthy.
Round 8
| Bo. | No. | Rtg | Name | Result | Name | Rtg | No. | ||
| 1 | 14 | 1673 | Patil Shirish | 0 - 1 | Kavlekar Sanjay R. | 1812 | 11 | ||
| 2 | 12 | 1557 | Waghmare Sachin Lahu | 0 - 1 | Swapanil Shah | 1634 | 10 | ||
| 3 | 13 | 1819 | Soundarya Kumar Pradhan | ½ - ½ | Kishan Gangolli | 2008 | 9 | ||
| 4 | 1 | 1686 | Patra Subhendu Kumar | 1 - 0 | Shashidhar K M | 1522 | 8 | ||
| 5 | 2 | 1563 | Marimuthu K | + - - | Hariharan Gandhi | 1448 | 7 | ||
| 6 | 3 | 1747 | Makwana Ashvin K | 1 - 0 | Prachurya Kumar Pradhan | 1634 | 6 | ||
| 7 | 4 | 1697 | Krishna Udupa | 1 - 0 | Aryan B Joshi | 1863 | 5 |
Soundarya Kumar Pradhan played with white pieces against Kishan Gangolli. It was the Nimzo Indian Rubinstein variation. Soundarya defended staunchly. Kishan had his chances but did not take them. The game finally ended in a draw.
Subhendu Kumar Patra managed to beat Shashidhar KM when the latter blundered a pawn in time pressure in the endgame.
One of the biggest upsets of the round was veteran Krishna Udupa beating Aryan Joshi. The well-known player from Shimoga sacrificed his queen and checkmated his opponent in style.
Due to bad health condition Hariharan Gandhi was absent for 8th and 9th round.
Round 9
| Bo. | No. | Rtg | Name | Result | Name | Rtg | No. | ||
| 1 | 5 | 1863 | Aryan B Joshi | ½ - ½ | Patil Shirish | 1673 | 14 | ||
| 2 | 6 | 1634 | Prachurya Kumar Pradhan | ½ - ½ | Krishna Udupa | 1697 | 4 | ||
| 3 | 7 | 1448 | Hariharan Gandhi | - - + | Makwana Ashvin K | 1747 | 3 | ||
| 4 | 8 | 1522 | Shashidhar K M | 0 - 1 | Marimuthu K | 1563 | 2 | ||
| 5 | 9 | 2008 | Kishan Gangolli | 1 - 0 | Patra Subhendu Kumar | 1686 | 1 | ||
| 6 | 10 | 1634 | Swapanil Shah | ½ - ½ | Soundarya Kumar Pradhan | 1819 | 13 | ||
| 7 | 11 | 1812 | Kavlekar Sanjay R. | 0 - 1 | Waghmare Sachin Lahu | 1557 | 12 |
Subhendu played quite well to maintain the balance. But at some point, he miscalculated and Kishan managed to win the game by pushing his pawn to e7. With this win Kishan took the sole lead from Subhendu, but the Odisha lad was not going to five up easily.
Round 10
| Bo. | No. | Rtg | Name | Result | Name | Rtg | No. | ||
| 1 | 14 | 1673 | Patil Shirish | 1 - 0 | Waghmare Sachin Lahu | 1557 | 12 | ||
| 2 | 13 | 1819 | Soundarya Kumar Pradhan | 1 - 0 | Kavlekar Sanjay R. | 1812 | 11 | ||
| 3 | 1 | 1686 | Patra Subhendu Kumar | 1 - 0 | Swapanil Shah | 1634 | 10 | ||
| 4 | 2 | 1563 | Marimuthu K | ½ - ½ | Kishan Gangolli | 2008 | 9 | ||
| 5 | 3 | 1747 | Makwana Ashvin K | 1 - 0 | Shashidhar K M | 1522 | 8 | ||
| 6 | 4 | 1697 | Krishna Udupa | + - - | Hariharan Gandhi | 1448 | 7 | ||
| 7 | 5 | 1863 | Aryan B Joshi | 1 - 0 | Prachurya Kumar Pradhan | 1634 | 6 | ||
In a game full of excitement Marimuthu had clear edge against Kishan Gangolli. The game was played in French Tarrasch variation and witnessed Marimuthu having advantage and a dominating position. The pressure of playing against the reigning National champion got the better of him and he accepted Kishan’s offer in a jiffy.
After being half point behind the leader Subhendu Patra managed to catch Kishan Gangolli as he beat Swapnil Shah from the white side of Ruy Lopez
Rankings after round 10
| Rk. | SNo | Name | FED | Rtg | Club/City | Pts. | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 | |
| 1 | 9 | Kishan Gangolli | IND | 2008 | Kar | 8,0 | 1,0 | 33,75 | 6 | |
| 2 | 1 | Patra Subhendu Kumar | IND | 1686 | Odisha | 8,0 | 0,0 | 38,50 | 7 | |
| 3 | 2 | Marimuthu K | IND | 1563 | T N | 7,0 | 0,5 | 36,00 | 6 | |
| 4 | 5 | Aryan B Joshi | IND | 1863 | Mah | 7,0 | 0,5 | 30,25 | 6 | |
| 5 | 3 | Makwana Ashvin K | IND | 1747 | Guj | 6,5 | 1,0 | 30,75 | 5 | |
| 6 | 4 | Krishna Udupa | IND | 1697 | Kar | 6,5 | 0,0 | 31,50 | 5 | |
| 7 | 6 | Prachurya Kumar Pradhan | IND | 1634 | Odisha | 5,0 | 0,0 | 23,25 | 3 | |
| 8 | 13 | Soundarya Kumar Pradhan | IND | 1819 | Odisha | 4,5 | 1,5 | 18,25 | 3 | |
| 9 | 8 | Shashidhar K M | IND | 1522 | Kar | 4,5 | 1,0 | 13,00 | 4 | |
| 10 | 10 | Swapanil Shah | IND | 1634 | Mah | 4,5 | 0,5 | 13,25 | 3 | |
| 11 | 11 | Kavlekar Sanjay R. | IND | 1812 | Goa | 3,0 | 1,0 | 9,75 | 2 | |
| 12 | 14 | Patil Shirish | IND | 1673 | Mah | 3,0 | 0,0 | 14,25 | 1 | |
| 13 | 12 | Waghmare Sachin Lahu | IND | 1557 | Mah | 2,5 | 0,0 | 8,50 | 2 | |
| 14 | 7 | Hariharan Gandhi | IND | 1448 | T N | 0,0 | 0,0 | 0,00 | 0 |
This is going to be a fight until the finish! In case of the same score Kishan will become the national champion for the 6th occasion because he has a better tiebreak as compared to Subhendu owing to the fact that Kishan beat Subhendu in their individual encounter. But Kishan has three strong opponents in the last three rounds - Ashvin Makwana, Krishna Udupa and Aryan Joshi, while Subhendu will face relatively easy opposition in the form of Sanjay Kavlekar and Sachin Waghmare. In the last round Subhendu is up against the World Junior silver medalist Soundarya Kumar Pradhan.
About the author:
Murthy Manjunatha is the chief arbiter at the National Premier 2019. He has been an arbiter at blind tournaments since many years and conducts the proceedings with great speed and accuracy and a human touch!