Rahul Shetty holds GM Kuzmin

DUBAI, APRIL 18. Rahul Shetty of India kept his form as he drew with Grandmaster Alexey Kuzmin of Russia. He had an outside passed pawn in the rook ending and agreed to a draw after 35 moves from a position where he had winning chances.

``The winning chances were minimal in view of the superior pawn structure of my opponent,'' he said. The opening phase was complicated and in a queens Indian defense, he attained the isolated pawns in centre. Kuzmin was unable to attack the central pawns and after exchange of queens the Russian Grandmaster had two weak pawns in queen side. Rahul managed to force Kuzmin on to defensive mode and after exchange of minor pieces he reached a rook ending with an outside passed pawn.

Abhijit Kunte also conceded a draw in 18 moves to Ghane Shojaat of Iran. In a queen pawn opening, Kunte delayed castling for early counterplay on the queenside. The middle game was complicated and Ghane obtained a slight edge with his active pieces but took the draw offer as he was in time pressure.

The rest of the Indian players went down to stronger opponents. Dinesh Kumar Sharma lost his game to GM Alexandrov Alexey of Russia in 58 moves. Dinesh's positional inaccuracy early in the opening gave the Russian a bind with a bishop being trapped in a passive position. Alexandrov played with deft positional play which led to a smooth victory.

Dinesh's pieces lacked coordination and had to jettison a pawn for counter play. The experienced Russian GM combined his pieces effectively to nurse his advantage to victory. Dinesh pointed out the mistake in the opening as early as move no. 8 which gave his opponent an unrelenting advantage.

GM Evgeny Svesnikov of Russia scored a quick knock-out victory over R.B. Ramesh in 18 moves from a Sicilian defense. Svesnikov played a classic attacking game after giving up the bishop pair for an active outpost in the centre. Ramesh blundered in a complex position when his king was under pressure of the major pieces.

The results (second round): Alexander Volzhin (1) lost to Valerij Filippov (2); Jaan Ehlvest (1) lost to Dusko Pavasovic (2); Drazan Sermek (1.5) drew with Evgeny Vladimirov (1.5); Marat Dzhumaev (1) lost to Alexander Motylev (2); Shukhrat Safin (1) lost to Andre Shariyazdanov (2); Alexie Fedorov (2) bt Ehsan Ghaem Maghami (1); Orazly Annageldyev (1) lost to Mihail Kobalija (2); Fouad El Taher (1.5) drew with Evgeny Pigusov (1.5); Karen Asrian (2) bt Handszar Odeev (1); Rufat Bagirov (1.5) drew with Yuri Yakovich (1.5); Taher Vakhidov (1) lost to Ashot Anastasian (2); Evgeny Sveshnikov (2) bt R.B. Ramesh (1); Shojaat Ghane (1.5) drew with Abhijit Kunte (1.5); Igor V. Glek (2) bt Sandipan Chanda (1); Neelotpal Das (1) lost to Valery Neverov (2); Alexander Galkin (2) bt Mark Heidenfeld (1); Farhad Tahirov (1) lost to Elmar Magerramov (2); Artashes Minasian (2) bt Thandalam S. Ravi (1); Javed Ihsan (1) lost to Baadur Jobava (2); Maxim Sorokin (2) bt Hasam Kolyaie (1); Mohamed Seif Hassan (1) lost to Goran Dizdar (2); Sergey Arkhipov (1.5) drew with Ghuloom Salem (1.5); Andrei Kharlov (1) drew with Khalid Mahdi (1); Aleksej Alexandrov (1.5) bt Dinesh Kumar Sharma (0.5); Zurab Sturua (1.5) bt C.S. Gokhale (0.5); Alexey Kuzmin (1) drew with Rahul Shetty (1); Pavel Kotsur (1.5) bt Antonio Motina (0.5); Raouf Gadjily (1.5) bt Sayed Javad Alavi (0.5); Mohaned Al-Modiakhi (1) bt A. Akhavan Rad (0); Mhamadreza Afshari (0) lost to Evgenij Ermenkov (1); Imed Abdelnabbi (1) bt Alshaali Khalid (0); Moussa A. Othman (1) bt Mohaned Saud (0); Radik Asylguzhin (1) bt Mahil E. Khechen (0); M. Sadatnajafi (0.5) drew with Sale Srdjan (0.5); Abdul Hameed El Arousy (1) bt Kiril Kusnetsov (0); Ahmad hamed (0) lost to Abdo Somev (1); Peter Straub (0) lost to A.R. Saleh Jasim (1); Aris Ozolin (1) bt Rabeea Othman (0); Reufat Mamedov (1) bt Bidhendi Hadiri (0); Mohamed N. Al Sayed (1) bt Ali Ghobadibaigan (0); Behna Fardbehbahani (0) lost to Morteza Mahjoob (1); Akbar Alibaev (1) bt Mohamed Bin Hafiz (0); Mansoor Abdullah (0.5) drew with Bahram G. Javanmard (0.5); Essa M. Khori (0) lost to Mod. Bengafer (1); Hisham Al Argha (1) bt Vladimir Kase (0); Georgiy Li (1) bt Sergey Kayumov (0); Abdul Latief Shabash (1) bt Abdulrahman Nizam (0); Nejad A. Ramezaan (1) bt Syed Aras Akbarinia (0); Nabil Saleh (1) bt Amirali Rahimi (0); Sadegh M. Mahmoody (0.5) drew with Arif Zainai (0.5).

- UNI

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