The Hindu : Sport / Chess : Kidambi is champion

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Aug 14, 2004

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Sport - Chess

Kidambi is champion

OLOMOUC, (CZECH REPUBLIC), AUG. 13. Four Indians made it to the top-five bracket as International Master S. Kidambi took the honours in the Olomouc Open chess tournament here on Thursday.

The fifth seed drew with fellow Chennai player R.B. Ramesh in the final round to finish the nine-round tournament with 7.5 points. Ramesh, Tejas Bakre and Neelotpal Das tallied seven points each and took the second, fourth and fifth spots respectively.

D. Harika, who lost her final round match, settled for the 15th place. Nisha Mohota (22nd), Eesha Karavade (24th), S. Meenakshi (27th) and R.R. Vasudevan (118th) were the other Indians in the fray.

Kunte falters

While Kidambi made it with ease in the final round, Abhijit Kunte suffered a shock loss in the 11th round of the Skanska Cup to finish fourth. Kunte, playing black, pressed too hard for victory against Jiri Jirka but faltered.

Among the other three overnight leaders, the top seed Vlastimil Babula made the most of his match against Timur Balabaev and won to claim the title with eight points. Czech Viktor Laznicka and Israel's Evgeny Postny drew their matches to finish with 7.5 points and took the second and third places respectively.

In the Proclient Cup, Czech Roman Chytilek's final round victory over compatriot Richard Biolek Jr. earned him the title after a four-way tie at eight points. Tania Sachdev and Parimarjan Negi, who featured in drawn matches on the final day, came ninth and last, in that order, in the 12-player field.

Final results:

Olomouc Open (ninth round results involving Indians): R.B. Ramesh (7) drew with S. Kidambi (7.5); Tomas Polak (Cze) (7) drew with Neelotpal Das (7); Tejas Bakre (7) bt Lukas Cernousek (Cze) (6); Konstantine Shanava (Geo) (7) bt D. Harika (6); Jan Plachetka (Svk) (6) drew with Eesha Karavade (6); S. Meenakshi (6) bt Svetla Jordanova-Besheva (Bul) (5); Dennis Miskulin (Swe) (5) lost to Nisha Mohota (6); Jiri Sveda (Cze) (4) drew with R. R. Vasudevan (4).

Skanska Cup (11th round): Jerzy Slaby (Pol) (5) drew with Patryk Lagowski (Pol) (5); Jan Bernasek (Cze) (4.5) drew with Evgeny Postny (Isr) (7.5); Gediminas Sarakauskas (Ltu) (6.5) drew with Richard Biolek (Cze) (5); Viktor Laznicka (Cze) (7.5) drew with Pavel Simacek (Cze) (3.5); Vlastimil Babula (Cze) (8) bt Timur Balabaev (Kaz) (2); Jiri Jirka (Cze) (4.5) bt Abhijit Kunte (7).

Proclient Cup (11th round): Charles Kennaugh (Eng) (5) drew with Tania Sachdeva (4.5); Parimarjan Negi (1.5) drew with Martin Tupy (Cze) (3); Rauan Mankeyev (Kaz) (8) lost to David Kanovsky (Cze) (8); Alexei Gavrilov (Rus) (8) bt Ladislav Salai (Svk) (6); Richard Biolek Jr. (Cze) (2) lost to Roman Chytilek (Cze) (8); Martin Kraemer (Ger) (7) bt B. Ben Savage (Eng) (5).

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