Date:29/06/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/06/29/stories/2008062960251700.htm

Sport - Chess

Parimarjan stays ahead

NEW DELHI: Grandmaster Parimarjan Negi stayed ahead with a perfect score from three rounds after Indians continued to dominate the Philadelphia International chess tournament at Philadelphia on Friday.

Fifteen-year-old Parimarjan defeated Canada’s Bindi Cheng, Frenchman Gabriel Battaglini and USA’s Dean J. Ippolito to head the field.

Parimarjan enjoys half-a-point lead over compatriots G.N. Gopal, K. Ratnakaran, R.R. Laxman, Arun Prasad and M.R. Venkatesh. National champion Surya Shekhar Ganguly, fellow Grandmaster Abhijit Kunte and Swati Ghate are part of the 10-player pack on two points.

Other Indians in the 39-player field are Nisha Mohota, Eesha Karavade (1.5 each), Kiran Manisha Mohanty, Sai Meera (1 each) and Aarthie Ramaswamy (0.5).

Meanwhile, in the Sort Open tournament at Sort, Spain, Abhijeet Gupta and T. Abhay reached four points from five rounds and shared the third spot half-a-point behind leaders Aleksander Delchev (Bulgaria) and Azer Mirzoev (Azerbaijan).

The results: Fifth round (involving Indians): Deep Sengupta (3) lost to Abhijeet Gupta (4); B. Adhiban (3) lost to Aryam Abreu Delgado (Cub, 4); T. Abhay (4) bt Matthias Roeder (Ger, 2.5); S.P. Sethuraman (3) drew with Emilia Djingarova (Esp, 3); M.R. Lalith Babu (2.5) lost to Yvain Bruned (Esp, 3.5); S. Nitin (3.5) bt Sopiko Guramishvili (Geo, 2.5); Pablo Arguelles Garcia (Esp, 3) drew with M. Shyam Sundar (3); Swapnil Dhopade (3) bt Kruttika Nadig (2.5); R. Preethi (2) lost to Pierluigi Piscopo (Ita, 3); Vishnu Prasanna (2.5) drew with Prasanna Rao (2.5); Maritza Arribas Robaina (Cub, 3) bt Pon N. Krithika (2); G.V. Sai Krishna (3) bt Vilela De Acuna (Cub, 20; Mary Ann Gomes (2.5) drew with Antonio Viani D’cunha (2.5); Shalmali Gagare (2.5) drew with Soumya Swaminathan (2.5); Mairelys Delgado Crespo (Esp, 3) bt Devangi Patankar (2); P. Uthra (2) lost to Nadya Karolina Ortiz (Col, 3); K. Priyadarshan (2.5) bt A. Niji (2); Bhakti Kulkarni (1.5) lost to Ismael Pla Ferreres (Esp, 2.5); Josep Solsona Manonelles (Esp, 1) lost to S.V. Sathya Priya (2); Sergi Panella Navarro (Esp, 2) bt C.P. Aatirah (1).