Saravanan takes sole lead

ANDORRA, JUNE 28. International Master V. Saravanan emerged as sole leader with four points when he beat WGM Stefanova of Bulgaria in the fourth round of the Andorra Open international chess tournament here today.

Psakhis (Israel), Kuzmin (Russia), Marin (Romania), R. B. Ramesh, Braga (Andorra) and Dublan (Spain) are in the second spot with 3.5 points.

Playing with the white pieces for the second consecutive game, Saravanan faced the Paulsen variation of the Sicilian defence from the 13th seeded Antoneta Stefanova. Saravanan benefited from an error on the seventh move by Stefanova and made inroads into black's queenside. Stefanova had to part with an exchange in trying to save her king, which was stuck in the centre. Coming under time pressure, Stefanova allowed Saravanan to return back the exchange at the right moment and resigned on the 47th move when white's king threatened to move all the way across the board to assist the passed pawn on the `a6' square to be promoted to a queen.

R.B. Ramesh pulled off a stunning victory over Grandmaster Al- Modiahki of Qatar in 56 moves. Ramesh adopted his favourite classical system of the Sicilian defence with black pieces, against which Modiahki preferred to fianchetto his king bishop. Ramesh chose a rare system whereby he fianchettoed both his bishops and managed to achieve a level middlegame. Ramesh refused a draw offer on the 23rd move and exchanged the queens to reach a favourable ending. He then won two pawns to win the game in the 56th move.

Vedant Goswami once again displayed a solid show by holding IM Milos Jirovsky of Czech Republic to a draw with black pieces. Vedant faced the Reti opening with black pieces against Jirovsky and conducted a quiet middlegame to achieve equality. He managed to exchange the dark squared bishops but agreed for a draw on the 23rd move when a level position was reached where both sides did not have any active plan. It was Vedant's third consecutive draw against a higher rated opponent.

Important results: (fourth round):

Saravanan (4) bt Stefanova (3); Al-Modiahki (2.5) lost to Ramesh (3.5) Jirovsky (2.5) drew with Vedant Goswami (2.5); Dublan (3.5) drew with Psakhis (3.5); Braga (3.5) drew with Marin (3.5); Kuzmin (3.5) beat Velicka (2.5); Cosma (3) drew with Georgiev (3); Ivanov (3) drew with Campora (3); Lalic (3) beat Gallego (2).

Third round: Ramesh (2.5) drew with Mellado (2.5); Saravanan (3) beat Jirovsky (2); Vedant Goswami (2) drew with Tyomkin (2); Psakhis (3) beat Pogerelov (2); Perez (2.5) drew with Kuzmin (2); Marin (3) beat Jansa (2); Georgiev (2.5) drew with Ivanov (2.5); Velicka (2.5) drew with Al-Modiahki (2.5); Braga (3) beat Cicak (2); Stefanova (3) beat Garcia (2); Dublan (3) beat Simonet (2).

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