Sasikiran takes lead; Kunte surprises Fominyh

By Manuel Aaron

CHENNAI, AUG. 25. Grandmaster K. Sasikiran took the lead at the end of the 11th round of the Pentamedia Grandmaster chess tournament this afternoon. It was a round of many surprises with four of the six games ending decisively, and most of them quickly.

Russian Grandmaster Fominyh was beaten by Abhijit Kunte and Dibyendu Barua won against Chanda with a brilliant Queen offer. Reefat bin Sattar of Bangladesh dropped out of reckoning for a Grandmaster norm when he was held to a draw by Ganguly. Reefat had won four games in a row and had to win all of his remaining games for a GM norm.

After gaining a 10-game Grandmaster norm, Prakash appeared to have taken his game against Sasikiran rather lightly. In the white side of a Kings Indian Defence, in a level position, he should have considered ways and means of bringing black's d6 pawn under pressure. But to everybody's surprise he sacrificed a knight on e6 which eventually brought him three pawns and then, sorrow.

When Prakash won his third pawn for his knight it looked as though the white forces were overwhelming the black position. But Sasikiran was ready with a counter blow with a knight on the 22nd move. He was threatening to capture white's remaining knight thanks to a deadly pin along the c-file. When Prakash parried this threat, Sasikiran brought his queen from a8 to c8 and then to c6, threatening mate. Prakash was forced to push f2-f3. With white's second rank cleared off most pawns, Sasikiran played ...Rc2 threatening the queen and ultimately the king through a rook sacrifice. Prakash gave up on the 26th move.

On the second table the Russian grandmaster Alexander Fominyh was surprisingly demolished by Abhijit Kunte with ridiculous ease. Kunte's bold play with the black pieces in a queens Indian Defence upset the Russian who had pushed his e2 pawn to e4. His central pawns came increasingly under attack from black's remote bishops. At a crucial juncture where tempo counted very much Fominyh played his knight to h5 and then brought it back, wasting two moves. All the while his rook on h1 remained on its home base, a victim of many a combination.

On the 23rd and 26th moves, Kunte played brilliant moves with his knight to completely dominate the position. In an active and fluid middle-game Kunte's two bishops were completely superior to white's two knights. On the 34th move Fominyh gave up when both of his knights were threatened at different sectors of the board and black had menacing mobile pawns in the centre.

Top seed Evgeny Vladimirov of Kazakhstan was well beaten by Uzbek Grandmaster Saidali Yuldashev in just 28 moves. Vladimirov played a little known variation against Yuldashev's Kings Gambit and after the exchange of the queens on the 14th move was in a mess. Not only he had lost the right to castle, but he also could concoct no plan to develop his queen-side pieces. The Uzbek developed his pieces classically, broke open the centre and won through a superb knight sacrifice on d6.

Probably the most beautiful attack of this round was played by the Tata Steel grandmaster Dibyendu Barua against Sandipan Chanda of Goodricke Chess Academy. Chanda played the Sicilian Dragon and Barua opted to play the Classical system against it. Barua gradually pushed back the black forces and when Chanda offered to exchange queens, Barua offered his queen free and got his two rooks onto black's second rank. Chanda could not accept the queen, but the white rooks came to stay in his territory.

Barua defended against Chanda's threats and at the same time worked his Queen into black's exposed king-side. On the 40th move he sacrificed a rook for black's defending bishop and moved his queen closer to the black king. Though Chanda had material superiority, he could not stop mate without giving away heavy material. Chanda resigned on the 43rd move.

Reefat bin Sattar needed three victories in three games for his Grandmaster norm. But he could only draw against Surya Sekhar Ganguly in 35 moves. Reefat played the Scotch Opening but seemed to have the worse of the middle-game but they drew in a queen and minor piece ending.

D.V. Prasad had a promising middle-game position against Iranian champion Ehsan Ghaem Maghami. But the game reached a rook and pawn ending and was drawn on the 58th move.

lThe results (11th round): Prakash lost to Sasikiran; Fominyh lost to Kunte; Yuldashev bt Vladimirov; Barua bt Chanda; Prasad drew Ghaem- Maghami; Reefat drew with Ganguly; Harikrishna - bye.

The points position: 1 Sasikiran 7.5; 2- 4 Barua, Prakash, Vladimirov 6.5; 5-6 Reefat, Kunte 5.5; 7-9 Harikrishna, Yuldashev, Fominyh 5; 10-11 Ghaem Maghami, Ganguly 3.5; 12-13 Chanda, Prasad 3.

Pairings (12th round): Ghaem Maghami - Reefat; Chanda - Prasad; Vladimirov - Barua; Kunte - Yuldashev; Sasikiran - Fominyh; Harikrishna - Prasad; Ganguly - bye.

Arvind maintains lead

C.J. Arvind of Loyola College maintained his half point lead at the end of the 11th round of the ONGC sponsored FIDE Rating Open tournament. He beat top seed, International Master N. Sudhakar Babu of Indian Bank in a crucial game. Arvind has 9.5 points and is followed half a point behind by Andhra's J. Ramakrishna.

lThe results (11th round): C.J. Arvind (Loyola) 9.5 bt Sudhakar Babu (Ind Bk) 7.5; Poobesh Anand (Mdu) 7 lost to J. Ramakrishna (AP) 9; Ebenezer Joseph (P&T Audit) 7 lost to K.V. Shantharam (Ind Bk) 8; M. Saimeera Ravi (Ind Bk) 7.5 drew with Saheli Barua (SE Rly) 7.5; R. Balasubramaniam (ICF) 7.5 bt R. Siddarth 7; Devendra Kumar 7.5 bt Ram S. Krishnan 6.5; K. Gunasekaran (ICF) 7.5 bt S.P. Pandiakumar 6; K. Gopalakrishnan (Ind Bk) 6.5 drew with H. Nilavoli 6.5; P. Rajesh 7 bt A.H. Huq (Bangladesh) 6; J.E. Kavitha 7 bt R. Navaneethakrishnan 6; Kambar Ali (Bangladesh) 6 lost to G. Rohit (AP) 7; V. Kameswaran 5.5 lost to S. Bharath 6.5; S. Sujatha 6 drew with S. Sanjai Kumar 6; T.U. Navin Kanna 5.5 lost to Shyam S. Krishnan 6.5; R.V. Venkatakrishnan 6.5 bt P. Priya 5.5; S. Raghuraman 6.5 bt O.S. Shankar 5.5; T.T. Lakshmipriyaa 5.5 drew with A. Bharath 5.5; P.N. Harini 5 lost to G. Ravindran 6.

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