Reefat posts another upset victory

By Manuel Aaron

CHENNAI, AUG. 20. IM Reefat bin Sattar of Bangladesh shocked Grandmaster Saidali Yuldashev of Uzbekistan in the seventh round of the Pentamedia Grandmaster chess tournament today.

Grandmaster Krishnan Sasikiran maintained his technical lead over Kazakh Grandmaster Evgeny Vladimirov. He tops the table with 5.5 points. He drew with top seed Vladimirov who has five points. As Sasikiran is yet to have his bye and therefore has one game less to play than Vladimirov, the real leader is the Kazakh grandmaster.

This 13-round tournament has thus passed the half-way mark with Sasikiran enjoying only a technical lead. Tomorrow is a rest day and the eighth round will be played on Tuesday.

The Uzbek Grandmaster Saidali Yuldashev was in a winning position against Reefat bin Sattar when he won a pawn on the 21st move. Yuldashev played the King's Indian Attack and had only minimal advantage when Reefat forgot that his b7 pawn could be captured. However, the Uzbek went wrong on the 31st move when he brazenly captured black's supported e6 pawn.

The rook could not be captured on the move, but Reefat side- stepped the trap, sacrificed his rook for a defending bishop and then safely captured the offending white rook with his bishop. Yuldashev could have won that bishop through a double attack, but then he discovered that that would lead to the pinning of his queen against his king. He resigned on the 40th move.

G.B. Prakash had a hard fought draw against the 18- year-old Iranian National champion Ehsan Ghaem Maghami. In the white side of a Grunfeld Defence, Prakash did not derive any advantage. In the middle-game, his queen-side pawns appeared to be vulnerable to the black forces, but he managed to escape without any loss of material. When the players drew on the 69th move, they were having a knight and two pawns each.

Prakash, as well as Harikrishna, are now on four points and need to score another four points in their remaining five games for a grandmaster norm.

After his very shaky play of yesterday, the Russian Grandmaster Alexander Fominyh played a fine game to down Goodricke star Surya Sekhar Ganguly. Fominyh offered his e4 pawn in the white side of a Queen's Gambit Accepted and Ganguly declined to capture the e4 pawn. White gained the advantage by advancing this pawn to e5 and sending back the black knight on f6.

As black had delayed castling, Fominyh made sure that he had an attack ready when the black king eventually moved to g8. To castle, Ganguly had to fianchetto his king bishop, wasting a number of moves. The moment Ganguly castled, Fominyh exchanged off the fianchettoed bishop and the black castled position was extremely weak along the white squares.

Fominyh methodically built an attack with his queen, two rooks and knight against black's castled position. On the 32nd move he made an unacceptable knight sacrifice on h5. Ganguly resigned after making one more move.

There were no exciting moments in Sasikiran's 41-move draw against Grandmaster Evgeny Vladimirov. Sasikiran's choice of 4 Qc2 against the Nimzo-Indian Defence did not disturb the top seed one bit. When the queens were exchanged off on the 11th move, one could have confidently predicted a peaceful end to this crucial game. When the players agreed to a draw Vladimirov had a pawn more in a rook ending.

D.V. Prasad crashed to a quick, 25-move defeat to Grandmaster Dibyendu Barua to end his hunt for the GM norm which has eluded him for the past four years. With only five more games left, and even if he wins all of them, he cannot reach the GM norm of eight points. He is on two points. Prasad played the French Defence for the first time, his usual choice being the Sicilian Defence.

Prasad planned to surprise Barua with a change of opening, but he did not get equality in an open position as Barua adopted the Tarrasch system. Prasad took his knight to d5 on the 12th move and on the 14th brought it back to f6. All the while, Barua's aggression gained momentum. From the 15th to 17th moves, Prasad made weak moves and allowed a bishop sacrifice on the 20th turn shattering his castled position. Barua's queen and rook freely operated along the defenceless king-side files and forced victory on the 25th move.

WIPRO-sponsored P. Harikrishna drew with Sandipan Chanda of Goodricke Academy. It started as a Queen's Indian Defence and reached a minor piece ending. After 78 moves the players drew in a knight and bishop ending. The game had been level throughout.

The results (seventh round): K. Sasikiran 5.5 drew with E. Vladimirov 5; P. Harikrishna 4 drew with S. Chanda 2; G.B. Prakash 4 drew with Ghaem Maghami 2; A. Fominyh 3.5 bt S.S. Ganguly 2; S. Yuldashev 2 lost to Reefat bin Sattar 3; D. Barua 3.5 bt D.V. Prasad 2; A. Kunte 3 bye.

lThe standings: 1. Sasikiran 5.5; 2. Vladimirov 5; 3-4. Prakash, Harikrishna 4; 5-6. Fominyh, Barua 3.5; 7-8. Kunte, Reefat 3; 9. Ghaem Maghami 2.5; 10-13. Chanda, Prasad, Ganguly, Yuldashev 2.

When reckoning the scores please note that six players are yet to have their byes which do not get them any point. These six players are: Sasikiran, Harikrishna, Prakash, Prasad, Reefat and Ganguly.

lPairings for Tuesday's eighth round: Reefat-Barua; Ganguly- Yuldashev; Ghaem Maghami-Fominyh; Chanda-Prakash; Vladimirov- Harikrishna; Kunte-Sasikiran; Prasad - bye.

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