KOLHAPUR, July 18: The 23-year-old Amardeep Bartakke claimed a place in the record books by becoming the first Southern Maharashtra player to claim the State Selection chess championship. The top seed from Satara today forced his opponent Ketan Khaire to resign after they both refused each other's offers for draws on the top board at the Hind Society hall in Kolhapur today.With one more round to go, Amardeep, needing just one point after the end of the seventh round yesterday, confirmed his title and also a place in the National `B' tournament as qualifier with a 53rd move inevitable victory.
``I am much more relaxed now,'' said Amardeep, who had finished 18th in last year's selection meet held in Mumbai. On his final round match against Prathamesh Mokal (Pune) for tomorrow, the B Sc Maths graduate said, ``I will try to maintain my unbeaten record and may also offer an early draw to my opponent.''
However, on the other hand, the fight for the next three places for qualifiers has intensified, withPrathamesh Mokal (Pune, 6.5), Pallavi Shah (Kol, 6.5), VKN Solani (Mum, 6), Vinod Bhagwat (Nasik, 6) and Saurab Khardekar (Nag, 6) still very much in the fray.
RESULTS (8th round):
Ketan Khaire (Pn, 6.5) lost to Amardeep Bartakke (Sat, 7.5); Prathamesh Mokal (Pn, 6.5) bt G Balaji (Mum, 5.5); Ketan Boricha (Mum, 5.5) lost to Pallavi Shah (Kol, 6.5); Anjali Palande (Aur, 5) lost to VKN Solanki (Mum, 6), Sashikant Kutwal (Pn, 5.5) drew with D Ravishankar (Mum, 5.5); Umesh Pangude (Nag, 5) lost to Saurab Khardekar (Nag, 6); Vinod Bhagwat (Nasik, 6) bt Rajesh Sapkal (Pn, 5); Ramkrishna Kashelkar (Mum, 5.5) bt Raju Sonecha (4.5); Udayan Bapat (Pn, 5.5) bt Pranav Akolkar (Pn, 4.5).
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
