The Hindu : Sport / Chess : Sasikiran settles for a draw

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Apr 28, 2004

Sport

Sport - Chess

Sasikiran settles for a draw

DUBAI, APRIL 27. Grandmaster Krishnan Sasikiran missed out on his chances before settling for a draw with GM Pavel Eljanov of Ukraine in the 8th and penultimate round of Dubai International chess championship here.

Pavel maintained his slender half point lead over nearest rivals with 6.5 points and is now followed by GMs Shakhriyaz Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan, top seed Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu of Romania, Artashes Minasian of Armenia, Evegny Vladimirov of Kazakhstan, Viorel Iordachescu of Moldova, Alexander Goloshchapov and Evgenij Miroshnichenko of Ukraine, Carlsen Magnus of Norway, Sasikiran and P. Harikrishna, who all have 6 points apiece.

Draws ruled the roost in the eighth round as players were only willing to consolidate their point position in this $41,000 prize money tournament. The big beneficiary of the day was 13-year-old Magnus Carlsen who earned his final GM norm after holding Alexei Federov of Belarus to a draw and became the second youngest Grandmaster ever after Sergey Karjakin of Ukraine.

Inching closer to their second IM norm were 11-year-old Parimarjan Negi who held IM Imad Hakki of Syria to a draw and Manthan Chokshi who caused a minor flutter defeating Women Grandmaster Firuza Velikhanli of Azerbaijan.

Sasikiran was clearly the better player against Eljanov but failed to strike upon the most effective path.

Up against a rather off-beat set up in the Queens Indian as black, Sasikiran embarked on a fine middle game plan that left Eljanov tottering even as the pieces got exchanged at regular intervals.

The Indian was looking good against Eljanov whose pieces were saddled with a difficult task to defend but Eljanov hung in with correct defensive moves that saved the day. The game lasted 36 moves.

Harikrishna drew with Iordachescu who failed to get a worthwhile advantage with his white pieces. The Ruy Lopez Brayer by the Indian took him to a comfortable position in the middle game after Eljanov decided to close the queen side and the peace was signed on the 30th move.

Ganguly loses

National champion Surya Shekhar Ganguly mishandled a superior position and went down to GM Goran Dizdar of Croatia who opened with the French defence as black.

Ganguly declined the draw offer by his opponent and seized the initiative with natural piece play. However the Indian missed the thread amidst major complexities and found himself on the receiving end in the queen and rook endgame. Sweeping the king side pawn, Dizdar wrapped up the issue after 70 moves handing Ganguly his second successive defeat.

After a slightly sluggish performance in the middle of the tournament, GM Evgeny Vladimirov of Kazakhstan, the coach of Indian team, came back in hunt for top honours with a crushing victory over GM Marat Dzhumaev of Uzbekistan.

In other games involving Indians R.B. Ramesh dashed the hopes of GM norm aspirant S. Satyaprgyan with a finely crafted victory in the endgame arising out of a Sicilian Taimanov. Ramesh's wife, WGM Aarthie Ramaswamy, also coasted to an easy victory against Turkan Mamedjarova of Azerbaijan and so did Abhijeet Gupta and IM Deepan Chakravarthy against Talal Hilwani of Syria and Anastasia Sorokina of Australia respectively.

IM Rahul Shetty held GM Villamayor Buenavent of Philippines to a draw while IM D.V. Prasad lost to Anjas Novita of Indonesia.

Important results (Round 8): Pavel Eljanov (6.5) drew with Krishnan Sasikiran (6); Artashes Minasian (6) drew with Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu (6); Alexander Goloshchapov (6) drew with Shakhriyaz Mamedyarov (6); Viorel Iordachescu (6) drew with P. Harikrishna (6); Alexei Fedorov (5.5) drew with Magnus Carlsen (6); Marat Dzhumaev (5) lost to Evgeny Vladimirov (6); Evgenij Miroshnichenko (6) bt Alexey Kuzmin (5).

Merab Gagunashvili (5.5) drew with Mikhail Ulibin (5.5); Jobava Baadur (5.5) bt Vuhar Gashimov (5); Surya Shekhar Ganguly (4.5) lost to Goran Dizdar (5.5); R.B. Ramesh (5) bt S. Satyapragyan (4); Rahul Shetty (4.5) drew with Buenavent Villamayor (4.5); Parimarjan Negi (4.5) drew with Imad Hakki (4.5); Talal Hilwani (3.5) lost to Abhijeet Gupta (4.5); D.V. Prasad (3.5) lost to Anjas Novita (4.5); Manthan Chokshi (4.5) bt Firuza Velikhanli (3.5); Anastasia Sorokina (3) lost to Deepan Chakravarthy (4); Aarthie Ramaswamy (4) bt Turkan Mamedjarova (3). — PTI

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport