Ganguly holds Uzbek Vahidov to a draw

By Rakesh Rao

UDAIPUR, JAN. 14. Even as the Chinese and Vietnamese set the pace for the stiffer battles ahead, Chennai-based K. Sasikiran and S. Vijayalakshmi brushed aside home challengers to stay on course for completing their elusive Grandmaster norms in their categories in the fifth round of the Asian chess championship here.

For the fourth straight round, 17th seeded Surya Shekhar Ganguly came out with a creditable result against a higher seed. After victories over Abhijit Kunte and Dibyendu Barua, followed by a draw against second seed Zhang Zhong, Ganguly today held Uzbek International Master Tair Vahidov, seeded 10th. In terms of the average rating performance, Ganguly is clearly the best among the Indians so far.

In a short Petroff Defence game, where Ganguly repeated the fifth move `novelty' played by Peter Leko against Vladimir Kramnik last year, Vahidov did not come up with the best reply. According to Leko's annotations, white should gain two `tempos' if black does not reply with either `d5' or `Nf6'. Here, Vahidov played Nc5 and gave Ganguly reasons to fancy his chances. But Ganguly could not find the right continuation and offered a draw on the 18th move.

The Sasikiran-Ramesh battle followed a double-edged line in semi- Slav Defence. Running short of time, Ramesh could not help losing a knight and a bishop for a rook. He did not prologue the battle and resigned on the 32nd move.

On the top board, third seed Chinese Xu Jun toppled his top seeded compatriot Peng Xiaomin in 42 moves of Sicilian Defence to stretch his lead to one point over teammates Wang Zili, Zhang Zhong and Vietnam's Dao Thien Hai.

Xu Jun, who conquered Sasikiran on Thursday, launched an all-out attack after Xiaomin, playing white, opted for a queen-side castling. Jun's onslaught began through an open `a' file with his queen, both rooks and a knight. In finding a way out of trouble, Xiaomin came under severe pressure from the clock, too. Though he crossed the time-control with equal material, his position looked lost. Soon, Jun won a rook for knight and that made the top seed resign.

On the women's top board, the leader from Vietnam, Hoang Thanh Trang, neutralised the advantage enjoyed by top seed Qin Kanying in the beginning of the this Grunfeld game. Hoang went for a series of exchanges and reached an ending with two rooks and minor pieces each. Though Hoang had an extra pawn she could do little about the isolated doubled-pawns on the `f' file. The draw was agreed on the 53rd move.

Vijayalakshmi made the most of fellow WGM title- contender Bhagyashree Thipsay's dubious choice of move on the ninth turn of Scotch Defence.

Bhagyashree just could not develop her pieces and Vijayalakshmi exploited the space-advantage to the hilt. The Indian Airlines employee was winning comfortably after 36 moves before Bhagyashree was declared `lost on time.'

The results (fifth round): men: GM Peng Xiaomin (Chn, 2624) 3 lost to GM Xu Jun (Chn, 2578) 4.5; GM Dao Thien Hai (Vie, 2550) 3.5 drew with GM Wang Zili (Chn, 2571) 3.5; Saydalli Yuldashev (Uzb, 2509) 2.5 lost to GM Zhang Zhong (Chn, 2611) 3.5; IM K. Sasikiran (Ind, 2514) 3.5 bt IM R. B. Ramesh (Ind, 2443); Surya Shekhar Ganguly (Ind, 2440) 3 drew with IM Tair Vahidov (Uzb, 2505); IM Dimitry Kayumov (Uzb, 2475) 3 drew with GM Pravin Thipsay (Ind, 2475) 2.5; IM Reefat Bin Sattar (Ban, 2379) drew with GM Dibyendu Barua (Ind, 2555) 2.5; S. Kidambi (Ind, 2433) 2 lost to IM Ziaur Rahman (Ban, 2465) 3; FM Ghaem Meghami Ehsan (Ira, 2446) 2.5 drew with IM G. B. Prakash (Ind, 2435) 2.5; IM Sudhakar Babu (Ind, 2336) 1.5 lost to IM Wu Wenjin (Chn, 2522) 2.5; IM D. V. Prasad (Ind, 2421) 2 drew with IM Abhijit Kunte (Ind, 2487) 2; IM Isaev Jamshed (Taj, 2435) 1.5 lost to FM P. Harikrishna (Ind, 2354) 2.5; Razaei Saravi Reza (Ira) 1 lost to FM Timothy Reilly (Aus, 2192) 2; Hatem Ibrahim Ahmed (Yem, 2350) 2.

Women: WGM Hoang Thanh Trang (Chn, 2448) 4.5 drew with WGM Qin Kanying (Chn, 2475) 3.5; WIM Bhagyashree Thipsay (Ind, 2247) 2.5 lost to WIM S. Vijayalakshmi (Ind, 2383) 3.5; WIM Koneru Humpy (Ind, 2244) 2.5 lost to WGM Memedova Rena (Uzb, 2323) 3.5; WIM Swati Ghate (Ind, 2297) 3.5 bt Sargeeva Tatiana (Kaz, 2250) 2.5; WFM Xu Yuanyuan (Chn, 2370) 2 lost to WGM Wang Pin (Chn, 2469) 3; WFM Tanima Parveen (Ban, 2080) 2 drew with Tania Sachdev (Ind, 2105); WFM Safira Shanaz (Ind, 2136) 2 bt Vineetha Wijesuriya (Lan) 1; WFM Szuvege Narelle (Aus, 2040) 2 bt Siti Zulaika (Mal) 1; WFM Saheli Dhar Barua (Ind, 2185) 2. bye.

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