Gallagher emerges champion

By S. Sabanayakan

KOLKATA, FEB. 16. Joseph G. Gallagher of Switzerland won the Goodricke International Open chess tournament at the Gorky Sadan here on Friday. Seed No. 1 and the highest ranked Andrei Kharlov of Russia finished the runner-up after both were tied at eight points at the end of the 11th and final round of the 12th edition of the meet.

The 36-year-old English-born Swiss Grandmaster was adjudged the champion on better tie-break. In the first count both tied at 69.5 points. Gallagher pipped his famous rival at the post in the second tie-break by half a point (47-46.5). For the first time the Median Buccholz score system was applied to break the tie in this meet.

Gallagher, who lives in Switzerland and plays in Europe, said this was one of the strongest championship he had won since he left England to his new country nine years ago. Going into the final round, he was half a point behind the leader Kharlov but made it up with a fine victory over Alexie Barsov of Uzbekistan by forcing the latter into a mating net in a King's Indian defence.

On the top board, Kharlov agreed to a quick 6-move draw with Evgeny Vladimirov of Kazakhstan. The 32-year-old Kharlov, who worked with Garri Kasparov as a second for four months, was left ruing for playing safe.

The second board too saw IM Ehsan Ghaem Maghami of Iran and GM Maxim Sorokin of Argentina, both on seven points each, deciding to play safe and drawing after a few moves in a Reti opening. Sandipan Chanda of India and Ziaur Rahman of Bangladesh, however, decided to battle it out on board 3 after Chanda refused a draw offer from his Bangla opponent.

In a Centre Counter defence, Chanda had two bishops but messed up his position in the middle game. Though Rahman had an extra pawn, Chanda had compensation in the form of two bishops. The game went into sudden death where Rahman had queen and three pawns as against Chanda's queen and two pawns. Despite being under time pressure, Chanda defended correctly and drew the game.

GM elect G.B. Prakash settled for a draw after having an extra pawn against GM Buenavent Villamayor of the Philippines in a queen ending. GM Dibyendu Barua drew with GM Dimitri Reinderman of the Netherlands in a queen and bishop versus queen and bishop ending after a long struggle.

IM Pentyala Harikrishna versus GM Tomasz Markowski of Poland game also ended in a draw in a rook and pawn ending. Harikrishna, who missed out on his final GM norm in this meet, had three pawns as against his rival's two. He could not translate the advantage into victory because all his pawns were on one side.

The sob story was that of Koneru Humpy. Needing to win to get her second WGM norm, she drew against Polish WGM Joana Dworakowska to leave the playing arena a dejected person.

The results (Indians unless stated): Andrei Kharlov (Rus) 8 drew with Evgeny Vladimirov (Kaz) 7.5; Ehsan Ghaem Maghami (Iri) 7.5 drew with Maxim Sorokin (Arg) 7.5; Sandipan Chanda 7.5 drew with Ziaur Rahman (Ban) 7.5; Alexei Barsov (Uzb) 6.5 lost to Joseph G.Gallagher (Swi) 8; G.B. Prakash 7 drew with Buenavent Villamayor (Phi) 7; Victor Mikhalevski (Isr) 7 drew with Datu Idelfonso (Phi) 7; R.B. Ramesh 6.5 drew with Nassir Wajih 7; Dibyendu Barua 6.5 drew with Dimitri Reinderman (Ned) 6.5; Tomasz Markowski (Pol) 6 drew with P. Harikrishna 6.5; T.S. Ravi 6 drew with Abhijit Kunte 6; Chito Garma (Phi) 5.5 lost to Dimitri Komarov (Ukr) 6.5; Surya Shekhar Ganguly 6.5 bt Nelson Mariano (Phi) 5.5; Tejas Bakre 6.5 bt S. Vijayalakshmi 5.5; Alexei Khamatgaleev (Rus) 6 drew with Krishnamoorthy Murugan 6; C.S. Gokhale 6.5 bt Normunds Miezis (Lat) 5; Amon Simutowe (Zam) 6 bt Gurpreetpal Singh 5; Abdulla Al-Rakib (Ban) 5.5 drew with Lanka Ravi 5.5; P.D.S. Girinath 5.5 drew with S. Satyapragyan 5.5; Jayant Gokhale 5.5 drew with Igors Rausis (Lat) 5; Neelotpal Das 5 drew with Arghyadip Das 5; Lungu Malupande (Zam) 5.5 bt Sriram Jha 4.5; Shankar Roy 5 drew with Ponnuswamy Konguvel 5; Rahul Shetty 5.5 bt Deep Sengupta 4.5; Joana Dworakowska (Pol) 4.5 drew with Koneru Humpy 5; Vishal Sareen 4 lost to N. Sanjay 5; S. Meenakshi 4 lost to B.T. Muralikrishnan 5; Dinesh Sharma 4.5 drew with Saheli Dhar-Barua 4.5; Pankaj Joshi 4 drew with Abhijit Gupta 4.5; Christian Brauer (Ger) 3.5 drew with Julia Galianina (Rus) 4; Harkamal Singh Sandhu 2.5 lost to Saptarshi Roy 4; Oleg Boricsev (Hun) 4 bt Anoori Shah 2; Saheli Nath 2.5 drew with Anup Deshmukh 3.5.

Final placing: 1. Joseph Gallagher (Sui) 8 points, Tie-break (59.5) (47), 2. AndreiKharlov (Rus) 8 (59.5) (46.5), 3. Maxim Sorokin (Arg) 7.5 (63.0), 4. Evgeny Vladimirov (Kaz) 7.5 (62.5), 5. Sandipan Chanda (Ind) 7.5 (62.0), 6. Ehsan Ghaem Maghami (Iri) 7.5 (60.5), 7. Victor Mikhalevski (Isr) 7.5 (56.0), 8. Ziaur Rahman (Ban) 7.5 (55.5), 9. Buenavent Villamayor (Phi) 7 (63.0), 10. Nassir Wajih (Ind) 7 (55.0) (44), 11. G.B. Prakash (Ind) 7 (55.0) (43), 12. Dibyendu Barua (Ind) 6.5 (59.5), 13. P. Harikrishna (Ind) 6.5 (59), 14. Dimitri Reinderman (Ned) 6.5 (56.0), 15. Dimitri Komarov (Ukr) 6.5 (54.5).

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