The Hindu : Sport / Chess : Kidambi holds Alexei Shirov

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Feb 02, 2006

Sport

Sport - Chess

Kidambi holds Alexei Shirov

Gibraltar: In hunt for his second GM norm, International Master S. Kidambi added to the woes of top seed Grandmaster Alexei Shirov of Spain by holding the highly regarded veteran to a draw in the eighth round of Gibtele.com Masters chess tournament here.

With only two more rounds to go, Shirov was left tottering at just five points for his second low in recent times after the former World championship finalist had finished last in a recent rapid event.

On the top board, former World junior champion Kiril Georgiev of Bulgaria continued to make merry by defeating second seed Vladimir Akopian of Armenia to remain in sole lead on seven points.

Georgiev is followed by Sergey Volkov of Russia on 6.5 points, while a pack of four players is right behind on six points.

The Indian duo of Sandipan Chanda and Surya Shekhar Ganguly are in the next group of 5.5 points after both scored hard-earned wins over Watu Kobese of South Africa and Anton Aaberg of Sweden respectively.

It turned out to be a good day for Kidambi, who enjoyed advantage against Shirov for major part of the game that started from a Grunfeld Defence.

However, former British championship winner and the best Indian contender in the tournament so far, Abhijit Kunte was not in his best form and was tamed by Mohamad Al-Modaihki of Qatar.

Important (eighth round, Indians unless specified):

Kiril Georgiev (Bul, 7) bt Vladimir Akopian (Arm, 5.5); Zoltan Gyimesi (Hun, 6) drew with Mikhail Gurevich (Tur, 6); Sergey Volkov (Rus, 6.5) bt Martinez Arizmendi (Esp, 5.5); Juan Belon Lopez (Esp, 5.5) drew with Nigel Short (Eng, 5.5); Jonathan Speelamn (Eng, 5.5) drew with Alexander Areshchenko (Ukr, 5.5); Viktor Bologan (Bul, 5.5) drew with Mohamad Al Sayed (Qat, 5.5); Nicholas Speck (Aus, 5) lost to Emil Sutovsky (Isr, 6); Mohamad Al-Modaihki (Qat, 6) bt Abhijit Kunte (5); S. Kidambi (5) drew with Alexei Shirov (Esp, 5); Zahar Efimenko (Ukr, 5.5) bt Milos Pavlovic (Scg, 4.5); Viktor Korchnoi (Sui, 5.5) bt Tejas Bakre (4.5); Anton Aaberg (Swe, 4.5) lost to Surya Shekhar Ganguly (5.5); Sandipan Chanda (5.5) bt Watu Kobese (Rsa, 4.5); Anupama Gokhale (4) lost to Antoaneta Stefanova (Bul, 5); Zhu Chen (Chn, 4.5) drew with Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury (4.5); Colin McNab (Sco, 5) bt Swati Ghate (4); Bhagyashree Thipsay (4) drew with Mohamed Tissir (Mar, 4); Nisha Mohota (4.5) bt Osuna EnriqVega (Esp, 3.5); Kruttika Nadig (4.5) bt Carlos Guerrero (Esp, 3.5); Mary Ann Gomes (4.5) bt Anthony Fox (Irl, 3.5); Martyn Hamer (Eng, 3) lost to Nimmy George (4). — PTI

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