Date:18/01/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/01/18/stories/2008011860282400.htm

Sport

Dzhumaev Marat marches on

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Showing no mercy, Dzhumaev Marat marched past top seed Ehsan Ghaem Maghami on a day of fierce battles on the leading boards of the 6th Parsvnath International Open chess tournament at the Modern School here on Thursday.

Marat, seeded seven, maintained his impeccable all-win record, following a 50-move victory in an ending involving a rook each and pawns. Marat’s seventh victory in as many rounds kept him half a point ahead of four-time National champion Surya Shekhar Ganguly.

The second seed from Kolkata ended the unbeaten run of G.B. Prakash in a king-and-pawn ending lasting 64 moves and became the only player to reach 6.5 points. Three more rounds remain in the competition.

This was also the day when most of the leading contenders from overseas did better than the home challengers. Former champion Saidali Iuldachev won the battle of Grandmasters against Pravin Thipsay and Vietnamese Nguyen Anh Dung overcame a pawn-deficit to beat former Asian junior champion S Arun Prasad.

Andhra-lad V.A.V. Rajesh forced a draw on Iranian GM Morteza Mahjoob in a 113-move marathon, Tania Sachdev drew with Bangladesh’s GM-elect Enamul Hossain in 43 moves, youngster K. Priyadarshan shared a point with Turkmenistan’s GM Sapar Batyrov and 12-year-old rising talent Vaibhav Khanna proved equal to Russian Woman GM Yana Melnikova.

The results: Seventh round (Indians unless stated): Marat Dzhumaev (Uzb, 7) bt Ehsan Ghaem Maghami (Iri, 5.5); Surya Shekhar Ganguly (6.5) bt G.B. Prakash (5.5); Igor Kurnosov (Rus,5.5) drew with Elizbar Ubilava (Esp, 6); K. Ratnakaran (5.5) drew with Abhijit Kunte (5.5); Saidali Iuldachev (Uzb, 6) bt Pravin Thipsay (5); S. Arun Prasad (5) lost to Nguyen Anh Dung (Vie, 6); Enamul Hossain (Ban, 5.5) drew with Tania Sachdev (5.5); V. A. V. Rajesh (5.5) drew with Morteza Mahjoob (Iri, 5.5); Abhijeet Gupta (6) bt Zhanibek Amanov (Kaz, 5); Ziaur Rahman (Ban, 6) bt Bitan Banerjee (5); Debashis Das (6) bt Aswin Jayaram (5); Yuri Solodovnichenko (Ukr, 5.5) bt Akash Thakur (4.5); Safin Shukhrat (Uzb, 5.5) bt Swapnil Dhopade (4.5); Sapar Batyrov (Tkm, 5) drew with K. Priyadarshan (5); Arjun Tiwari (4.5) lost to Sriram Jha (5.5); M.R. Venkatesh (5.5) bt Vinay Kumar Matta (4.5); S. Kidambi (5) drew with P. Praveen Prasad (5); J. Ramakrishna (5.5) bt R.R. Laxman (4.5); Kiran Manisha Mohanty (5) drew with P.D.S. Girinath (5); Akshayraj Kore (5.5) bt Mary Ann Gomes (4.5); P. Konguvel (4.5) lost to C. Praveen Kumar (5.5); M.S. Thejkumar (4.5) lost to Swayams Mishra (5.5); Kantilal Dave (4.5) lost to V. Saravanan (5.5); Roktim Bandyopadhyay (5.5) bt Badri Nepali (Nep, 4.5); Rakesh Kulkarni (5) drew with Swati Ghate (5); J. K. Raju (5) drew with Sudhakar Babu (5); P. Karthikeyan (5) drew with Anurag Mhamal (5); E. P. Nirmal (4) lost to Shojaat Ghate (Iri, 5); Morteza Darban (Iri, 5) bt O. T. Anil Kumar (4); Malleshwara Rao (4.5) drew with Vikramaditya Kamble (4.5).