Prakash gets second GM norm

By Manuel Aaron

CHENNAI, AUG. 23. G.B. Prakash of Indian Bank made his second Grandmaster norm in the ninth round of the Pentamedia Grandmaster Chess Tournament this evening. And he did it in style, beating the tournament leader Grandmaster Evgeny Vladimirov of Kazakhstan.

This is a nine-game norm. This norm is valid irrespective of his results in the remaining three rounds.

And Reefat bin Sattar, the Bangladesh International Master won his fourth consecutive game to keep his chances of making a Grandmaster norm alive. He has to win his remaining three games for a maiden GM norm.

The ninth round was the most violent round of this FIDE category- nine Grandmaster tournament with five of the six games ending decisively.

Prakash played a great game and handled the King's Indian Defence of the grandmaster in classical fashion. Black had a weak pawn on d6. Prakash doubled his rooks on the d-file and on the 17th move made a startling knight offer on b5. Vladimirov could not accept it as that would have led to the loss of a pawn and rook for a knight.

With this tactic Prakash won the d6 pawn. A few moves later he attacked the c6 pawn which could not be defended as Prakash was ready with some more deadly tactics. On the 32nd move the queens and minor pieces left the board and it was a double rook ending where the Kazakh was two pawns down for no compensation. Playing unhurriedly and carefully, Prakash forced resignation on the 50th move.

Fourteen-year-old P. Harikrishna sprang a surprise by beating National champion Abhijit Kunte. In the black side of a Queen's Indian Defence, Kunte fianchettoed his bishop on the king-side as well and there ensued a blocked centre. Both players manoeuvred for long with all the pieces on the board. The game exploded into action on the 47th move when Harikrishna pushed f3- f4. After this black's position gradually crumbled and Harikrishna won on the 61st move when he was winning a bishop for nothing.

Continuing his dream run, Reefat bin Sattar scored over former National champion D.V. Prasad in a topsy turvy game. In the white side of a French Winawer, Prasad achieved a strong position and through a knight sacrifice won a pawn on the 17th move.

Thereafter he was winning easily but Reefat played a clever game. He was patient and stubborn. On the 37th move he offered a pawn on h6. Prasad took it. It was okay, but it had to be followed up precisely as it opened up files for black in the long run. When Prasad missed a few tricks, it was Reefat who had the last laugh, mounting a successful counter attack along the long white diagonal. The game lasted 51 moves.

Barua won a difficult game against Goodricke's Surya Sekhar Ganguly in 62 moves. Ganguly got an equal game from a Sicilian Paulsen. On the 27th move, Barua parried Ganguly's premature rook invasion of his second rank to seize the initiative. They reached a queen and bishop versus queen and knight ending which was advantageous for Barua.

When Barua was harassing the black king with his queen, Ganguly made the mistake of moving his king on the 42nd move instead of interposing his knight. After this Barua won a pawn on the 53rd move and forced resignation nine moves later.

Saidali Yuldashev, the Uzbek Grandmaster, had a very interesting game against Ehsan Ghaem Maghami of Iran. The Iranian made a pawn sacrifice in the middle of the board from a Boleslavsky Sicilian. The Uzbek appeared to be under pressure but with the advent of the endgame, the Iranian slipped into extreme time trouble. Yuldashev had a protected passed pawn on d6, while Maghami had a blocked passed pawn on a2. During time trouble he gave up this a2 pawn and was soon lost.

The Russian Grandmaster Alexander Fominyh had a very slight advantage against Goodricke's Sandipan Chanda from a Catalan Opening but he could achieve nothing more than a draw.

lThe results (ninth round): P. Harikrishna bt A. Kunte; G.B. Prakash bt E. Vladimirov; A. Fominyh drew with S. Chanda; S. Yuldashev bt Ghaem Maghami; D. Barua bt S.S. Ganguly; D.V. Prasad lost to Reefat bin Sattar; K. Sasikiran - bye.

lThe standings: 1. Prakash, Vladimirov 6; 3. Sasikiran 5.5; 4-5. Harikrishna, Reefat 5; 6-7. Fominyh, Barua 4.5; 8. Kunte 4; 9. Yuldashev 3.5; 10. Ghaem Maghami 3; 11-12. Ganguly, Chanda 2.5; 13. Prasad 2. Tenth round pairings:

Ganguly-Prasad; Ghaem Maghami-Barua; Chanda-Yuldashev; Vladimirov-Fominyh; Kunte-Prakash; Sasikiran-Harikrishna; Reefat- bye.

ONGC-FIDE rated tournament

In the ONGC-FIDE rated open tournament, C.J. Arvind continued his winning spree. He knocked off K.V. Shantharam of Indian Bank in the ninth round. He continues to lead his closest rival, J. Ramakrishna of Andhra by 1.5 points.

lThe results (ninth round): C.J. Arvind 8.5 bt K.V. Shantharam (Ind Bk) 6; Ebenezer Joseph 6 lost to J. Ramakrishna (AP) 7; K. Gopalakrishnan (Ind Bk) 6 drew with Saheli Barua (S.E.Rly) 6.5; S. Sujatha 5.5 lost to Sudhakar Babu (Ind Bk) 6.5; Poobesh Anand (Mdu) 6.5 bt Ram S. Krishnan 5.5; M. Saimeera Ravi (Ind Bk) 6 drew with G. Rohit (AP) 6; R.R. Laxman 5 lost to Devendra Kumar 6.5; K. Gunasekaran (ICF) 5.5 drew with S. Bharath 5.5; J.E. Kavitha 6 bt A.H. Huq (Bangladesh) 5; R. Siddarth 6 bt Kambar Ali (Bangladesh) 5; V. Kameswaran 4.5 lost to R. Navaneetha Krishnan 6; R. Balasubramaniam (ICF) 5.5 bt P. Priya 4.5; O.S. Shankar 5.5 bt A. Bharath 4.5; R.V. Venkatakrishnan 5.5 bt T.U. Navin Kanna 4.5; H. Nilavoli 5 drew with G. Ravindran 5; P. Rajesh 5 bt R. Praveen Kumar 4; R. Raghunathan 4 lost to S.P. Pandiakumar 5; S. Raghuraman 5 bt Nabeela Farheen 4.

Kidambi pays a visit

Eighteen-year-old Sundararajan Kidambi, India's newest International Master, visited the Pentamedia Grandmaster tournament immediately on his arrival from Europe to meet his friend and playing partner, Grandmaster Sasikiran.

Kidambi had played in three tournaments in one trip. The first one was the Golden Cleopatra Open in Cairo, Egypt where he scored 4.5 in a 26-player, 9-round Swiss which included four grandmasters.

He then went to Biel, Switzerland where he played in the annual Masters tournament from July 24 to August 4. There he scored seven from 11 rounds and made his third and final International Master norm. He had played a number of grandmasters and drew with many, like Mark Zeitlin, Klovans, Kempinsky and van der Wiel.

Last year Kidambi had made his first norm in the same tournament at Biel and then at the British championship at Scarborough.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Sport
Previous : No stopping Steven Bennie
Next     : Razzaq helps Pakistan to 28-run win