Sport - Chess

Sulskis on course to title
By Amitabha Das Sharma

S. Satyapragyan of India who achieved his maiden International Master norm, with a quick draw against compatriot GM Abhijit Kunte, in the Goodrike international Open chess tournament in Kolkata on Sunday.-Photo: Sushanta Patronobish.

KOLKATA, MARCH 24 Powering to his third consecutive win, Lithuanian Grand Master Sarunas Sulskis took another step towards the title with seven points in his kitty after the eighth round of XIII Goodricke international Open chess tournament here at Gorky Sadan on Sunday. The win helped Sulskis establish a lead of 1.5 points from his immediate rivals.

Grand Master Krishnan Sasikiran, who has been leading the Indian challenge, succumbed to the fourth consecutive draw playing against Russian GM Aleksey Kuzmin. The drawn game helped Sasikiran retain his status behind the leader with 5.5 points. The Indian's GM's overnight companion, Argentine GM Maxim Sorokin, lost against his Armenian GM Arsen Yegiazarian to fall to the third position while the latter moved up to the second spot. Another man moving up to the second spot was the Iranian GM Ehsan Ghaem Maghami who beat the top seeded Belarus GM Aleksei Aleksandrov in a marathon game that lasted till the 76th move. Ukrainian GM Sergei Ovsejevitsch beat Russian GM Ruslan Sherbakov to tally 5.5 points and complete the list of four players in the second spot.

Sulskis continued his overnight form and made short work of Russian GM Evgeny Gleizerov in the Tarrasch variation of the French defence in 30 moves. Playing on the second board Sasikiran, playing with black pieces, drew a minor piece ending against Kuzmin which arose from a Slav defence in 57 moves.

Sorokin went down to Yegiazarian in a Petroff defence. Sorokin blundered in the endgame and allowed Yegiazarian a passed pawn on the seventh rank which decided the fate of the game. Ehsan Ghaem Maghami showed good nerves in his action against the top seed in a tense game. Maghami had a queen and a bishop against the two rooks of Aleksandrov in the endgame. Maghami effectively utilised his queen and bishop to win the game.

S. Satyapragyan of India achieved his maiden International Master norm with a quick draw against compatriot GM Abhijit Kunte in 17 moves in a Sicilian defence. Satyapragyan, who works with Indian Airlines, required one point from two games following the seventh round. But as he was paired against a higher rated player a draw was sufficient to ensure for his norm.

Indian IM Sandipan Chanda held the second seeded Alexander Motylev of Russia, to a creditable draw in the Dragon variation of the Sicilian defence in 26 moves. Local GM Dibyendu Barua had little difficulty in getting the better of German IM Joerg Blauert in a Knight ending. Barua had an extra outside passed pawn which sealed the German's fate.

India's WGM Koneru Humpy lost yet another game when she succumbed to P. Mahesh Chandran in a Catalan opening in 41 moves.

The results : Sarunas Sulskis (Ltu) 7 bt Evgeny Gleizerov (Rus) 4.5; Alexey Kuzmin (Rus) 5 drew with Krishnan Sasikiran (Ind) 5.5; Aresn Yegiazarian (Arm) 5.5 bt Maxim Sorokin (Arg) 5; Ehsan Ghaem Maghami (Iri) 5.5 bt Aleksej Aleksandrov (Blr) 4.5; Andrey Shariyazdanov (Rus) 5 drew with Pavel Kotsur (Kaz) 5; Alexander Goloshchapov (Ukr) 5 drew with Alexander Fominyh (Rus) 5; Sergei Ovsejevitsch (Ukr) 5.5 bt Ruslan Sherbakov (Rus) 4.5; Abhijit Kunte (Ind) 4.5 drew with S. Satyapragyan (Ind) 5; Sandipan Chanda (Ind) 4.5 drew with Alexander Motylev (Rus) 4.5; Drazen Sermek (Slo) 5 bt Gore Yogesh (Ind) 4; Bogdan Lalic (Eng) 4.5 drew with Zi Jing Wong (Mas) 4.5; Joerg Blauert (Ger) 4 lost to Dibyendu Barua (Ind) 5; Koneru Humpy (Ind) 3.5 lost to P. Mahesh Chandran (Ind) 4.5; T.S. Ravi (Ind) 4.5 bt R.B.Ramesh (Ind) 3.5; Nisha Mohota (Ind) 3.5 lost to Tejas Bakre (Ind) 4.5; G.B. Prakash (Ind) 4 drew with Sriram Jha (Ind) 4; Rahul Shetty (Ind) 4.5 bt Enamul Hossain (Ban) 3; Mohamad Al-Sayed (Qat) 4 bt K.Visweswaran (Ind) 3; Swathi Ghate (Ind) 3 lost to Lanka Ravi (Ind) 4; Suvrajit Saha (Ind) 3.5 drew with V.Saravanan (Ind) 3.5; Deep Sengupta (Ind) 3.5 drew with Ponnuswamy Konguvel (Ind) 3; Abdulla Al-Rakib (Bang) 3 drew with Dinesh Kumar Sharma (Ind) 3; Sundararajan Kidambi (Ind) 3.5 bt Somak Palit (Ind) 2.5; Vikramjit Singh (Ind) 3.5 bt Aarthie Ramaswamy (Ind) 2; Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury (Ind) 3 bt Saheli Dhar Barua (Ind) 2; P.D.S. Girinath (Ind) 2.5 bt Krishna Thapa (Nep) 2; Shayeste Ghader Pour Ghader (Iri) 2 drew with Rahul Sangma (Ind) 2.

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