Good day for Indians

DENASQUE, JULY 9. The third round of the Denasque Open chess tournament turned out to be a tough one for the Grandmasters as Cifuentes Parada and Ruslan Pogarelov lost to their lowly-rated opponents.

GM Lev Psakhis also had to concede half a point when he was held to a fighting draw by Serrano of Spain.

For the Indians it was happy cruising as all three posted comfortable victories over their opponents. IM R.B. Ramesh went for a pawn gambit variation in the French Tarrasch variation of Rodriguez Perez. Taking advantage, Ramesh tripled his queen and two rooks on the `E' file and won a piece, and his opponent resigned on the 26th move.

IM. V. Saravanan faced the Ruy Lopez and came out of the opening with a big lead in development. He continued aggressively to win his opponent's queen for a rook and in a queen vs rook and bishop ending, he blundered a pawn to make things difficult. But luck favoured Saravanan and he pocketed the point in 48 moves.

Vedant Goswami faced the Bogo-Indian defence of Cemeli Pellice with 4-Nbd2. He gained control of the centre when his opponent mistakenly withdrew his black coloured bishop to the passive 'E7' square. Continuing actively he won the pawn on the 24th move and consequently the game when his opponent blundered a piece on the 35th move.

In other important games of the third round, Herraiz Hidalgo, who held top seed Lev Psakhis to a draw in the second round, continued his dream run by convincingly beating GM Cifuentes Parada from the white side of a queen pawn opening.

GM Lev Psakhis essayed the Queen's Indian defence in respect to the queen pawn opening of Serrano Salvador (2119) of Spain. Salvador gave up his two central pawns and achieved an attacking position against Psakhis's weakened kingside. Psakhis had to summon up his vast experience to defend accurately and took a draw in a rook and two minor piece ending.

Important results (third round):

R.B. Ramesh (2.5) beat Rodriguez Perez (Spain); V. Saravanan (2.5) beat Mayer Schwartz (Spain) (1.5); Vedant Goswami (2.5) beat Cemeli Pellicer (Spain) (1.5); Alexi Kuzmin (3) beat Sotomayor Fontana (2); Hernandez (3) beat K. Larsen (Holland) (2); Marin (3) beat Miguel Blasco (2); Daniel Campora (3) beat Baron Rodriguez (2); Cicak Slavko (2.5) drew with F. Dischinger (2.5); Herraig Hidalgo (2.5) beat Cifuentes Parada (1.5); Jonathan Grand (3) beat Ruslan Pogarelov (2.5).

- UNI

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