Sasikiran bests Humpy after titanic encounter

By Our Sports Reporter

GUNTUR, APRIL 14. Top- seeded Andrey Shariyazdanov demonstrated his calibre with a clinical win over Pravin Thipsay in a 11th round to lead the pack with 8.5 points in the Chalapathi Grandmasters international chess here on Friday.

Though Thipsay employed the King's Indian Defence, the Russian Grandmaster exploited the Indian's passive play in middle-game in style. On the 35th move, when Thipsay resigned it was interesting to note that he was not losing any material but was getting strangulated. He obviously didn't want the torture to continue.

Shariyazdanov felt that Thipsay's 18th move, Bd7, failed to contest the `b' file and allowed himself to be dominated. Another error by the seasoned Indian was his 20th move - h5. Thipsay's pieces never crossed beyond the third rank. Left with no option, he had to resign.

There was an element of drama in the game where National champion Krishnan Sasikiran got the better of IWM Koneru Humpy after a marathon battle stretching over 82 moves. Sasikiran began with Torre attack to gain the usual opening advantage and it was obvious that the young girl was playing for a draw from the beginning. Sasikiran manoeuvred his knights very cleverly to get them posted on ideal squares. But, much to his chagrin, Humpy didn't commit any glaring tactical error. She hung on grimly for more than six hours.

Humpy claimed a draw on the 70th move on the ground that there was a repetition of photographic position thrice. Though white's position got repeated, her claim was disallowed by the arbiter, Mr. I. Muralidhar Naidu who ruled that she didn't complete her move.

According to the rules, the claimant should first inform the arbiter before making a move and then if the position repeats for the third time, it would be upheld. However, this afternoon, Humpy unaware of that rule claimed the draw without making her move.

Interestingly, even if she had made the move the position would have changed. And, towards the end, Humpy rather strangely claimed another draw on 78th move, under time pressure, on the ground that she had extra material advantage. But, the arbiter refuted that claim too as it was clear Humpy was in a losing position.

What surprised the critics was as to why Mr. Naidu consulted quite a few people before refusing the claim the second time. He could have given his decision straightaway when he knew fully well that the claim cannot be considered. A claim can be made when the player is under time pressure and not when the opponent is in a winning position.

After all this drama, finally Sasikiran was able to open up the `h' file and exchange rooks. In the resulting queen and knight vs Queen and bishop end-game, Sasikiran almost let the game slip away into a drawn affair. However, he pulled back at the right time by heading into a knight vs bishop endgame while his passed pawn on `b' file helped him score the vital point.

Now Humpy has a near-impossible task of registering two wins in the last two games to get the 5.5 points and earn the Woman Grandmaster title.

In another game, Sandipan Chanda's hopes of grabbing the coveted GM title here vanished as he suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of GM Leonid Yurtaev. Chanda decided to employ Veresov opening with the clear intention of taking his opponent away from his home preparations by going in for d4 instead of his normal e4.

But after the exchange of queens the position resembled the French Defence. It was castling on opposite wings and the pawns stormed each other's kings. In this situation, it was Yurtaev who was first to succeed by winning a central pawn. Soon, by threatening mate with his rooks on `b' file he could win a knight. Chanda resigned on 36th move when he could not avoid a checkmate.

In a contest which began with Semislav Defence, GM Dibyendu Barua, playing black, outwitted G.B. Prakash in 37 moves. The highpoint of the contest was the Grandmaster sacrificing a piece in endgame to catch the rival king in the mating net with his two rooks.

Prakash missed a chance on 33rd move when he could have tried to obtain a draw by giving up his rook in return for two pieces. Instead he moved his attacked rook which led to his king being mated by force. Though Prakash was a piece up, he could not prevent a mate and had to resign.

IM V. Saravanan and GM-norm holder D.V. Prasad settled for a draw in 11 moves while, in another game, GM Alexander Fominyh and GM Ildar Ibragimov agreed for a draw in 11 moves.

In another game, GM-elect Abjhijit Kunte started with his favourite King's Indian pattern against IM Zia-ur-Rehman's inept handling of queen pawn.

On the eighth move, Zia played his bishop to `d3' and on the 10th, he again played his bishop on `c4' which cost affected the tempo. Kunte managed to bring his knight on `f4' with decisive effect by luring Zia to grab his queenside pawns which left white's queen ineffective.

Kunte slowly built up a dangerous kingside attack with his knight and bishop combined. Later, on sacrificing a pawn on `c5', Kunte posted his bishop on`'e5' with a killing effect. Zia tried to build up some counterplay but failed against a precise attack by Kunte and had to resign on 36th move.

The results (11th round): Sandipan Chanda (6) lost to Leonid Yurtaev (7), Andrey Shariyazdanov (8.5) bt Pravin Thipsay (4.5), K. Sasikiran (6.5) bt Koneru Humpy (3.5), Zia-ur-Rehman (2) lost to Abhijit Kunte (5.5), G.B. Prakash (3) lost to D. Barua (6), V. Saravanan (4) drew with D.V. Prasad (5), Alexander Fominyh (8) drew with Ildar Ibragimov (7.5).

Saturday's pairings: Yurtaev vs Ibragimov, Prasad vs Fominyh, Barua vs Saravanan, Kunte vs Prakash, Humpy vs Zia-ur-Rehman, Thipsay vs Sasikiran, Chanda vs Shariyazdanov.

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