Sport - Chess

Deshmukh widens lead

NEW DELHI APRIL 20. Employing the King's Indian Attack to perfection, International Master Anup Deshmukh of LIC defeated Karun Duggal and stretched his lead to a full point, after the seventh round of the Global Networks International Rating chess tournament, at the Russian Culture Centre here on Saturday.

Deshmukh has 6.5 points and is followed by IM norm holder Nassir Wajih (5.5) of Railways. Candidate IM Vishal Sareen (5) of LIC is a close third at the halfway stage of the tournament.

As Duggal made a calculation error in an interestingly poised middlegame, Deshmukh exchanged a few pieces to win the queen. After 46 moves, Duggal gave up.

The round, however, belonged to 10-year-old Sankalp Modwal of Delhi. He earned a fighting draw against top-seeded IM N Sudhakar Babu of Indian Bank.

Babu had a slight edge after the complexities of an Italian Opening and pressed for an advantage on the queenside. An oversight in the first time control cost Modwal a pawn, but he held on. Modwal gave two pieces in exchange for a rook and salvaged the draw after consistently threatening the rival king.

Playing with black pieces, Akshay Kumar Jain held Nassir Wajih to a draw, in a Vienna Opening game. Akshay had pieces being exchanged at regular intervals forcing Wajih to accept the draw.

Earlier in the sixth round, Anup accounted for Santosh Kumar Sinha of Bihar in a Queen's Indian defence game. Playing white, Deshmukh seized the initiative after a pawn sacrifice in the opening and never gave Sinha much chance of a comeback. In the final stages of the game, Anup pressed with a seventh rank rook and penetrated into the rival territory before the rout.

Wajih, who earlier led the field with Deshmukh, fell behind after splitting the point with Sanchit Agarwal.

The results:

Seventh round: Karan Duggal (2) lost to Anup Deshmukh (6.5); Nassir Wajih (5.5) drew with A. K. Jain (4); Vishal Sareen (5) drew with V. S. Negi (3.5); G. B. Joshi (4) w/o Navneet Sharma (0), Gurpreet Pal Singh (4) bt D. S. Negi (3); Sankalp Modwal (2.5) drew with N. Sudhakar Babu (4); S. K. Sinha (4) bt Sanchit Agarwal (1).

Sixth round: A. Deshmukh bt S. K. Sinha; S. Agarwal drew with N. Wajih; N. Sharma lost to V. Sareen; A. K. Jain bt S. Modwal; V. S. Negi lost to K. Duggal; D. S. Negi bt G. B. Joshi; N. Sudhakar Babu drew with G. P. Singh.

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