Sasikiran surges into sole lead

By Arvind Aaron

COLOMBO, MAY 12. After the two Bengal leaders were defeated in the decisive penultimate round games, it is Grandmaster Krishnan Sasikiran who moved to re-establish lead in the men's section of the FIDE World Chess Championship Zonal Tournament here at Airport Garden Hotel on Saturday.

Saturday was a day of upsets and this was waiting to happen. Dibyendu Barua and Surya Sekhar Ganguly who played cautious draws in the previous round were both defeated. It was their first defeat in the tournament. Barua was sucked into a powerful king side attack by Abu Sufain Shakil of Bangladesh and Ganguly faltered in the ending against Sasikiran.

Sasikiran, the ONGC player from Chennai is leading with eight points from ten games. He is tipped to win the tournament as he will face Laxman Wijesuriya of Sri Lanka in the last round. Wijesuriya is yet to move out of zero.

In second place are Ganguly and Barua with 7.5 points. GM Abhijit Kunte is on seven points and IM Devaki Prasad is on 6.5. Both these players can only play for the three cash prizes.

Pallavi Shah who shocked the zone's lone woman Grandmaster Vijayalakshmi, moved to sole lead with seven points from eight games. Half-a-point behind her is IWM Meenakshi Subbaraman with 6.5 points. Overnight joint leader Swati Ghate of Pune, who was beaten in a fine ending by Saheli Barua, is on third place with six points after suffering her second defeat.

It is widely expected that International Woman Master Pallavi Shah, the LIC player from Kolhapur in Maharashtra, will win the Women's event. She needs a draw from Sri Lanka's Vineetha Wijesuriya in the final round to take the title even if there is a tie-break. This was confirmed by John S. Ralph, the Indian arbiter from Ernakulam.

Barring further upsets, Sasikiran and Pallavi Shah should win the event. Only the winner will advance to the World Championship Knock-Out from this zone. Cash prizes totalling $ 2,500 will be given away on Sunday after the final round.

Saheli Barua stopped Swati Ghate from winning her fifth game in a row with an outstanding top class move on the 40th turn to win the pawn down ending using black's weak back rank. In a Sicilian Sveshnikov, Ghate equalised easily and even tactically won a pawn. But in time pressure, Saheli spotted the brilliant move with the white pieces to win.

Pallavi had her job easily cut out beating Vijayalakshmi in the same manner in which she accounted for her sister Meenakshi earlier in the tournament.

Choosing to castle queen side, Pallavi embarked on a king side attack. Vijayalakshmi, who is playing the Pirc defence as a family opening, ran into trouble after the opening and her not castling was exploited by white in 33 moves. Vijayalakshmi lost her queen and gave up later.

``When did I last lose three games?'' asked Vijayalakshmi Subbaraman, the top-seed in the women's section who lost playing quite badly with the black pieces in a Pirc defence. She went undefeated in the Olympiad picking up a silver medal last November. Now, she is worried about herself having lost to all Indians except her sister.

Nevertheless, her sister, Meenakshi, who is under sponsorship of Indian Airlines scored an easy victory collecting a full point from Tanima Parveen after the latter fell into a familiar trap in the queen's gambit declined. Meenakshi is in second place and has theoretical chances of winning the zonals. Meenakshi is playing the tournament between her college examinations.

Abu Sufain Shakil, the Bangladesh surprise in the event pulled down the experienced Barua to his first defeat of the tournament. Barua played the French defence perhaps largely on his wife's repertoire thereby avoiding the Petroff's defence which allows white players easy equality. He was caught in a poor line and without support around his castled king. Abu Sufain called all the attacking shots and Barua lost when he lost a bishop.

Caught with a serious space handicap, Barua made things worse with his 18th move which chased white's knight from a passive post to one of aggression. Untitled Shakil's win against a grandmaster is the biggest upset of the tournament.

Sasikiran used an idea from an opening that was discussed in their training at Valery Salov camp at Bangalore prior to leaving for the Chess Olympiad last October. His opponent Ganguly was also present in that camp when Salov described the Kramnik- Kasparov game from the London match which was in progress during that camp. Noting that Ganguly is opting for a wrong sequence in that opening in an earlier game here, Sasikiran went for blood and won in 55 moves.

Ganguly tried to match pawn advances himself to counter white's pawn advances. This was a faulty plan on the queen side as his 31st move lost him a pawn. Sasikiran nursed this extra pawn to win a knight versus bishop ending.

In a sharp Sicilian Schehnikov opening, Enamul Hossain held Kunte to a creditable draw with the black pieces in 42 moves. After sacrificing a rook for minor piece, the Bangla player had threats running around that forced Kunte to take a draw by perpetual checks.

In other games, Prasad opened with the queen pawn unusually and defeated tailender Laxman Wijesuriya in 50 moves in a Catalan opening. The Bangalore player won a piece for two pawns in the middle game and converted the initiative into a point.

The results:

Men: Tenth round: Abu Sufain Shakil bt Dibyendu Barua, Abhijit Kunte drew with Enamul Hossain, H.U. Amarawickrama drew with Reefat Bin-Sattar, T.D.R.Peiris drew with Taibur Rahman, D.V. Prasad bt L. Wijesuriya, K. Sasikiran bt S.S. Ganguly.

The standings after the tenth round: 1 K. Sasikiran (Ind) 8/10, 2-3 D. Barua (Ind), S.S. Ganguly (Ind) 7.5 each, 4 Abhijit Kunte (Ind) 7, 5 D.V. Prasad (Ind) 6.5, 6 Abu Sufain Shakil (Ban) 6, 7 Reefat Bin-Sattar (Ban) 5.5, 8 Enamul Hossain (Ban) 4, 9 Taibur Rahman (Ban) 3.5, 10 T.D.R. Peiris (Srl) 3, 11 H.U. Amarawickrama (Srl) 1.5, 12 L. Wijesuriya (Srl) 0.

Women: Eighth round: Saheli Barua bt Swati Ghate, S. Meenakshi bt Tanima Parveen, Rani Hamid bt Vineetha Wijesuriya, Pallavi Shah bt S. Vijayalakshmi, Upasena Hasini drew with Anupama Konara.

The standings after the eighth round: 1 Pallavi Shah (Ind) 7/8, 2 S. Meenakshi (Ind) 6.5, 3 Swati Ghate (Ind) 6, 4 Saheli Barua (Ind) 5.5, 5-6 S. Vijayalakshmi (Ind), Rani Hamid (Ban) 4.5, 7 Tanima Parveen (Ban) 2.5, 8 Vineetha Wijesuriya (Srl) 2, 9 Anupama Konara (Srl) 1, 10 Upasena Hasini (Srl) 0.5.

The pairing for Sunday's final round:

Men: Ganguly v Abu Sufain Shakil, Wijesuriya v Sasikiran, Rahman v Prasad, Reefat v Peiris, Hossain v Amarawickrama, Barua v Kunte.

Women: Anupama Konara v Saheli Barua, Vijayalakshmi v Upasena, Wijesuriya v Pallavi Shah, Tanima Parveen v Rani Hamid, Swati Ghate v Meenakshi.

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