Humpy scores a creditable draw

By Our Sports Reporter

GUNTUR, APRIL 13. Showing a wonderful presence of mind in a hopeless position, Asian's youngest IWM, Koneru Humpy virtually wrested a creditable draw from top-seed and favourite GM Andrey Shariyazdanov in a 10th round game at the Chalapathi Grandmasters international chess tournament here on Thursday.

In a contest, in which she was outplayed, Humpy opted for Queen pawn opening. In the beginning Shariyazdanov didn't throw enough hints of what exactly he was looking for and it was a clueless affair for the young rival.

On the 20th move, the Russian exchanged the queens which resulted in two glaring weaknesses on white side - an e5 pawn and the dark square bishop. And after the exchange of one pair of rooks, black controlled the seventh rank. The advantage of the Russian was too obvious after he grabbed the pawn on 32nd move and had the chance to grab e5. Humpy had literally no chance to battle it out.

Then the least expected tactical error was committed by Shariyazdanov who adopted the wait and watch approach and started giving checks to white king. An alert Humpy moved her king in such a way to claim a draw after the third time appearance of a photographic position of the same move which the Russian didn't notice. The deputy arbiter after checking the scoresheets upheld Humpy's claim.

This result ensures that Humpy is still in with an outside chance of achieving her WGM norm by taking her tally to 5.5 points (as per the latest FIDE rules it was found out that 5.5 points were required and not 6.5 points as mentioned earlier). She now has 3.5 points and three more very tough games against K. Sasikiran, Zia-ur-Rehman and G.B. Prakash.

Sandipan Chanda marred his chances of inching towards near to the GM norm by suffering a defeat at the hands of GM Pravin Thipsay in a one-sided affair. The teenager lost the game in 50 moves in Scheveningen opening.

Clearly, it was Thipsay who held the sway right from the beginning and pressurised Chanda's Kingside with all almost all of his pieces. Sandipan's castled position soon buckled and he had to loose an exchange which was enough for Thipsay to clinch the issue.

Now Sandipan needs wins against Leonid Yurtaev, Shariyazdanov and Sasikiran from the three remaining games and ironically still needs half-a-point to get the IM title. It is an uphill task for him to get the important figure of 9.5 points.

The eagerly-awaited battle between GMs-elect Abhijit Kunte and K. Sasikiran fizzled out into a draw in 54 moves. Abhijit's Ruy Lopez opening was met with Zaitsev system with Sasikiran employing a new move (15th). The game resembled a structure from the King's Indian Defence.

While Black lined up his pieces on Kingside attack, white's play existed on the Queenside. The game entered into complications with Sasikiran sacrificing a pawn on 31st move in return for the initiative for the kingside. However, the two decided to split the point.

GM Dibyendu Barua had little problem in getting the better of IM Zia-ur-Rehman of Bangladesh. Rehman employed the Kan variation of Sicilian against which Barua chose the ``maroczy bind'' set-up. It was enough for the Indian when his opponent embarked on the wrong combination on 23rd move which resulted in Barua obtaining an extra bishop. Zia, however, continued to hang on till 63rd move before surrendering.

The second-seeded Russian GM Ildar Ibragimov marched ahead to catch up with the leaders with a facile 39-move win over IM V. Saravanan. Playing King's Indian Defence, the Indian committed positional mistake on 15th move...a5 and allowed the Grandmaster to have a free hand in the ensuing struggle. With black having no counterplay on the queenside, Ildar opened up the castle with a pawn storm and swiftly mated his opponent.

M-norm holder D.V. Prasad of Indian Oil Corporation and IM G.B. Prakash settled for a draw after 31 moves while, Leonid Yurtaev and GM Alexander Fominyh also settled for a draw in just nine moves.

The results (tenth round): Leonid Yurtaev (6) drew with Alexander Fominyh (7.5); Ildar Ibragimov (7) bt V. Saravanan (3.5); D.V. Prasad (4.5) drew with G.B. Prakash (3); Dibyendu Barua (5) bt Zia-ur- Rehman (2); Abhijit Kunte (4.5) drew with K. Sasikiran (5.5); Koneru Humpy (3.5) drew with Andrey Shariyazdanov (7.5); Pravin Thipsay (4.5) bt Sandipan Chanda (6).

Pairings for Friday: Sandipan vs Yurtaev; Shariyazdanov vs Thipsay; Sasikiran vs Humpy; Zia-ur-Rehman vs Kunte; Prakash vs Barua; Saravanan vs Prasad; Fominyh vs Ibragimov.

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