 Indian Airlines team with its strong contingent, IM Elect Rahul Shetty, WGM Norm holder and National Women's Champion S.Vijayalakshmi, IM norm holder C.S.Gokhale, former National "A" Player G.B.Joshi and V.S.Negi won the 11th All India Public Sector Team Chess Championship held at Ahmedabad from 21st to 24th March 2000. The championship hosted by LIC, Ahmedabad Division on behalf of LIC Sports Promotion Board was revived after a gap of few years. The beautiful elegant looking banquet hall of Hotel Royal Highness at Laldarwaja, Ahmedabad was the tournament venue, which reflected the image of the organisation. Ms Maliniben Atit, Mayor of Ahmedabad inaugurated the four day event, by lighting the traditional lamp.
Totally nine Public Sector teams took part in the event with the host LIC men's team starting the favorite. Of the 45 players there were 20 FIDE rated players including 9 IMs with one WGM norm holder in S.Vijayalakshmi. As the number of teams were only nine it was decided to reduce the number of rounds from seven to five. In the inaugural round both Indian Airlines and LIC Women teams easily defeated the lesser mortals, Kudremukh Iron Ore and the
debutant United Indian Insurance by 4-0. Whereas in the other boards the top seed LIC Men broke the resistance of the Air India team comprising of IM T.N.Parameswaran and S.K.Sharma (2185) defeating them 2.5-1.5. Except S.R.Radha, who was held to a draw by K.Satishchandra of NMDC, all other IMs Konguvel, Lanka Ravi and Verghese Koshy of ONGC won their games finishing 3.5-0.5 against
NMDC.
The grim second round battle between ONGC and LIC(M) resulted favourably to LIC(M). Though IM Konguvel forced Sriram Jha to resign within 25 moves, IM elect National Under-25 champion Dinesh Sharma beat Lanka Ravi, while captain of LIC (M) Vishal Sareen increased its tally by winning against S.R.Radha (ONGC) in the third board. Interestingly it was a happy day for the debutant United India who registered their maiden victory over NMDC by 3.5-0.5. Except D.P.Dhairya, all other players of United India - B.K.Surti, S.Susil Kumar and Muzzaffar Hussain - got full point whereas Dhairya, who played impressively against Nisha Mohota in the first round and left her on hook, drew with N.Chakraborthy (NMDC). United India Insurance appeared for the first time as a team representing General Insurance Corporation in which it is one of the subsidiaries.
In the third round when all the tables witnessed draw except the clash between two host's teams - LIC men & women wherein the men's team prevailed over women's by a convincing 3.5-0.5 - the impressive one was the performance of the new entrant United India insurance against AI, who made nice equaliser when their B.K.Surti and S.Susil Kumar lost to the strong players - T.N.Parameshwaran and S.K.Sharma in the first and the third board respectively. United India's D.P.Dhairya and M.Husain easily accounted for V.R.Hedge and V.S.Rajpurkar making it 2-2, which drew the attention of other teams.
The fifth and final round saw the Indian Airlines team completing the formalities by crushing Air India by 3.5-0.5 without giving any chance to LIC Men who were expecting some
résistance against Indian Airlines. The lone half a point came from former National Champion T.N. Parameswaran, while his Air India teammate S.K.Sharma who made an impressive performance of cent percent score of 4/4 was rested in the final round and he won the Third Board prize. Sharma's success includes a win over LIC's Vishal Sareen in the first round. The champion Indian Airlines bagged Rs.5000 with a trophy, while LIC Men took home Rs.3000 and the third placed LIC Women got Rs.2000.
The organisers announced a special prize of Rs.5000 to Dinesh Kumar Sharma (LIC) for his creditable performance of winning the National Under-25 Championship at Vijayawada recently.The Arbiter's team led by International Arbiter I.G.Parmer conducted the tournament smoothly and Ahmedabad Police Commissioner Shri P.C.Pande gave away the prizes to the winners.
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