Date:21/07/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/07/21/stories/2008072159541900.htm

Sport - Chess

Good show by Lalith Babu

NEW DELHI: Andhra-lad M. R. Lalith Babu continued to impress when he drew with 11th seeded Belarus’ Grandmaster Sergey Kasparov in the sixth round of the Balaguer International Open chess tournament at Balaguer, Spain, on Saturday.

This was Lalith’s third draw against a Grandmaster in the last five rounds. Lalith, rated 2328, is currently performing at a staggering 2541-level. Abhijeet Gupta and Deep Sengupta matched Babu’s tally of 4.5 points after winning their games.

The results (sixth round, involving Indians): M. R. Lalith Babu (4.5) drew with Sergey Kasparov (Blr, 4.5); Abhijeet Gupta (4.5) bt Rafael Colas Longaras (Esp, 4); Vishnu Prasanna (3.5) lost to Deep Sengupta (4.5); Kruttika Nadig (3.5) lost to Logman Guliev (Aze, 3.5); Alexander Ipatov (Ukr, 4) bt G.V. Saikrishna (3); Devangi Patankar(3) lost to Swapnil Dhopade (4); Jose Luis Ramon Perez (Esp, 3.5) drew with C.P. Aatirah (3.5); Mary Ann Gomes (3.5) bt Manuel Sicilia Ruiz (Esp, 2.5); Albert Sanuy Moncasi (Esp, 2.5) lost to Soumya Swaminathan (3.5); T. Abhay (3.5) bt Jose Codina Garcia (Esp, 2.5); Oriol Frances Cuscullola (Esp, 2) lost to S. V. Sathyapriya (3).