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Lanka Ravi stuns Zagrebelny

CHENNAI, FEB. 19. International Master Lanka Ravi recovered from the opening round defeat to shock Sergey Zagrebelny of Uzbekistan in the second round of the 3rd Aeroflot Open chess tournament being played at Hotel Russia in Moscow on Wednesday.

In an otherwise mediocre day, Indians lost more games than they won but the factor was that they were playing stronger opponents and all five of them had the disadvantage of playing with the black pieces.

India's title hope, Krishnan Sasikiran drew GM Ghaem Maghami, Iran's strongest rated player ever. Sasikiran played the Sicilian defence with he black pieces in this encounter. Sasikiran is on 1.5 points and tied for the 16th place.

Fifteen players including the world junior champion Shakhriyaz Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan, Etiene Bacrot of France and Konstantin Sakaev of Russia are in the lead with full two points.

Kolkata star Neelotpal Das pulled off a creditable draw against 28-year old grandmaster Aleksei Lugovoi of Russia with the black pieces. Other Indians playing on half point, Thipsay and Chanda went down playing black to stronger players namely Artashes Minasian of Armenia and Zhang Zhong of China. Das and Ravi are on one point and are looking for GM norms from this event.

Grand Master Yuri Kruppa (1.5) of Ukraine shocked defending champion Viktor Bologan (0.5/2) of Moldova with the black pieces.

Important results:

Second round: Group A: M. Sorokin (Rus) 1.5 drew with J. Lautier (Fra) 1.5, E. Shapnoshnikov (Rus) 1.5 drew with Ilia Smirin (Isr) 1.5, E. Bacrot (Fra) 2 bt A. Goloshachapov (Ukr) 1, P. Kostur (Pol) 1 lost to K. Sakaev (Rus) 2, S. Rublevsky (Rus) 1.5 drew with S. Karjakin (Ukr) 1.5, E. Ghaem Maghami (Iri) 1.5 drew with K. Sasikiran 1.5, Zhang Zhong (Chn) 1.5 bt S. Chanda 0.5, Artashes Minasian (Arm) 1.5 bt P.M. Thipsay 0.5, Aleksei Lugovoi (Rus) 1 drew with Neelotpal Das 1, S. Zagrebelny (Uzb) 0 lost to Lanka Ravi 1.

Group B: T. Bakre 1.5 drew with L. Beklarjan (Rus) 1.5, I. Yagupov (Rus) 1.5 drew with V. Kuznetsov (Rus) 1.5, Dinesh Kumar Sharma 1.5 drew with Vassily Gagarin (Rus) 1.5, S. Kidambi 0.5 drew with Jorge Lopez (Fra) 0.5, Rainer Stark (Ger) 0.5 drew with P. Konguvel 0.5.

Third round: Group B: Natalia Pogonina (Rus) 1.5 lost to Tejas Bakre 2.5, T.Kotanian (Arm) 2.5 bt. D.K.Sharma 1.5, Rinat Zhumabaev (Kaz) drew with S.Kidambi 1, P.Konguvel 1.5 bt Julia Mashinskaya (Rus) 0.5.

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