Date:18/05/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/05/18/stories/2008051860371900.htm

Sport - Chess

Kransenkow stays ahead

MUMBAI: Draws on the top four boards saw overnight leader Michal Krasenkow (eight points) maintain his half-point lead after nine rounds of the Mayor’s Cup International Open chess tournament here on Saturday.

Kransenkow and Abhijit Kunte drew in just 11 moves and on the second board, Bangladesh team-mates Abdulla Al-Rakib and Ziaur Rahman signed peace in just 10 moves.

IM norms for Murali, Ram

B.T. Murali Krishnan (6.5 points) beat Swayam Mishra and Ram S. Krishnan (7) defeated B. Adhiban to make IM norms.

In the day’s biggest upset, International Master Anup Deshmukh, a former member of Indian Olympiad squad, got the better of fourth seeded Spanish GM Elizbar Ubilava in 54 moves.

The results (Indians unless stated):

Ninth round: Abhijit Kunte (7.5) drew with Michal Krasenkow (Pol, 8); Abdulla Al-Rakib (Ban, 7.5) drew with Ziaur Rahman (Ban, 7.5); M.S. Thejkumar (7.5) drew with Bartomiej Macieja (Pol, 7); K. Humpy (7) drew with S. Arun Prasad (7); Anton Filipov (Uzb, 7.5) bt M.R. Venkatesh (6.5); R.R. Laxman (7) drew with Arghyadip Das (7); Reefat Bin Sattar (Ban, 7.5) bt Deep Sengupta (6.5); Merab Gagunashvili (Geo, 7) bt B. S. Shivanandan (6); K. Priyadarshan (6) lost to Saidali Iuldachev (Uzb, 7); D. P. Singh (6.5) drew with Shukhrat Safin (Uzb, 6.5); Vidit Gujarati (6.5) drew with R. B. Ramesh (6.5); Tejas Bakre (7) bt Arun Karthik (6); Ram S. Krishnan (7) bt B. Adhiban (6); Aarthie Ramaswamy (6) lost to S. Satyapragyan (7); Akshat Khamparia (6.5) drew with P. Konguvel (6.5); Elizbar Ubilava (Esp, 5.5) lost to Anup Deshmukh (7).