Date:17/07/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/17/stories/2008071760532500.htm

Sport - Chess

Soumya stuns Aroshidze; Lalith, Abhay hold GMs

NEW DELHI: Soumya Swaminathan continued her fine form and stunned ninth-seeded Georgian Grandmaster Levan Aroshidze as several Indians enjoyed a fruitful second round of the Balaguer International Open chess championship at the Spanish town of Balaguer on Tuesday.

In two other surprising results involving Indians, young M.R. Lalith Babu proved equal to sixth-seeded Azerbaijani GM Azer Mirzoev and T. Abhay held Sergey Kasparov, the 11th-seeded GM from Belarus.

On a day when 21 winners, including Abhijeet Gupta, Swapnil Dhopade, G.V. Saikrishna and Devangi Patankar, reached two points, Kruttika Nadig drew with compatriot Deep Sengupta.

Devangi surprised higher-rated Vishnu Prasanna while Saikrishna defeated higher-rated Spanish rival Lazaro Lorenzo de la Riva.

The results (second round, involving Indians): Mary Ann Gomes (1) lost to Vladimir Baklan (Ukr, 2); Azer Miroev (Aze, 1.5) drew with M.R. Lalith Babu (1.5); Abhijeet Gupta (2) bt Sopiko Guramishvili (Geo, 1); Soumya Swaminathan (2) bt Levan Aroshidze (Geo, 1); T. Abhay (1.5) drew with Sergey Kasparov (Blr, 1.5); Kruttika Nadig (1.5) drew with Deep Sengupta (1.5); Tatiana Kasparova (Blr, 1) lost to Swapnil Dhopade (2); G.V. Saikrishna (2) bt Lazaro Lorenzo de la Riva (Esp, 1); Devangi Patankar (2) bt Vishnu Prasanna (1); Joaquim Escur Hereu (Esp, 0.5) drew with C. P. Aatirah (0.5); Jaume Casamitjana Obach (Esp, 0) lost to S.V. Sathyapriya (1).