Ramesh crowned king in Commonwealth chess
Mumbai   11-Dec-2007
Grandmaster RB Ramesh won the Parsvnath Commonwealth Chess championship here on Monday. GM Surya Shekhar Ganguly had to be content with the second spot while the third place went to the new GM Abhijeet Gupta. Despite his splendid performance against International Master K Rathnakaran, Ganguly had to be content with the second spot due to an inferior tiebreak. The only solace for Ganguly was that he shared the equal prize money of Rs 1,37,500 with Ramesh, while Gupte was richer by Rs 75,000. Stating that the feeling was yet to sink in, Ramesh remarked^ "Frankly, I did not expect to win the title this year, but the fact that there was no pressure on me and I was enjoying my chess worked in my favour." The title has also given the 31-year-old Chennai-based GM the impetus to-secure a position in the Indian team. "I want to get back to the national team and I can forward my case with this win," said Ramesh who won his GM title in 2003. ; However, the former British Open champion said he was hoping for one of the youngsters to lift the title. "It would have been good for Indian chess if one of these youngsters had won the championship instead of me." He also had a word of praise for the young IM Himanshu Sharma. "He is a very good player and it's unfortunate that he narrowly missed the GM norm," said Ramesh, who rated his game against IM Mahmood Lodhi of Pakistan and GM Gawain Jones of England as his best games in the championship. Amongst women, IM Harika Dronavalli defended her title, which she won in the last edition at Mumbai. Overall, she took the seventh position and bagged a cash prize of Rs 40,000. Delhi girl Tania Sachdev took the second spot while WGM Nisha Mohota finished third.