Crisp wins for Kunte, Prasad

By Arvind Aaron

DORTMUND, JULY 12. Former National champions, Grandmaster Abhijit Kunte and International Master Devaki Prasad of Indian Oil started their campaign in the Grandmaster Group A section with crisp victories here on Thursday.

Playing their games within an hour of reaching Dortmund by train from Frankfurt, the three Indians scored two victories and a draw in the opening round of the 102-player 11- round Swiss format competition. Kunte, the third seed from Pune smashed lowly-rated V. Martin with the white pieces when he skewed a knight and threatened mate in the 16th move to win a Sicilian Sveshnikov opening game. Team-mate Prasad won against a lady player, Heincke Wenke, with the black pieces in 27 moves from a Sicilian defence. Prasad won a rook and pocketed the point quite easily.

In another game, Ponnuswamy Konguvel of ONGC, Chennai was held to a 20-move draw by Dennis Philip. ``I almost lost,'' Konguvel conceded.

Seven Grandmasters are in contention for the top places in the Open tournament where Russian born GM Vladimir Epishin of Germany and Josef Pinter of Hungary are the top two seeds. Kunte should be playing for the title while Prasad (who is accompanied by his wife) and Konguvel are seeking Grandmaster norms from the event.

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