The Hindu : Sport / Chess : Karthik, Abhishek stun Grandmasters

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Thursday, Jul 19, 2007
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Sport - Chess

Karthik, Abhishek stun Grandmasters

NEW DELHI: Youngsters R. Arun Karthik and Abhishek Das stunned Grandmasters Oleg Korneev and Marc Narciso Dublan to be among those with perfect scores after two rounds of the Balaguer International Open chess tournament in Balaguer, Spain, on Tuesday.

Karthik made light of a rating difference of 236 points against Russian Oleg Korneev, seeded fifth, to win in 53 moves.

Abhishek Das, rated 231 points below the seventh seeded Spanish GM Marc Narciso Dublan, emerged victorious in 46 moves.

Two girls, Padmini Rout and Kruttika Nadig, made their presence felt by holding Grandmasters Julen Arizmendi Martinez (Spain), seeded 10th, and Levan Aroshidze, (Georgia), seeded 15th.

Soumya Swaminathan, who gained a Woman International Master norm in Benasque last week, upstaged a much higher-rated compatriot B. Adhiban.

The results (second round): R. Arun Karthik (2) bt Oleg Korneev (Rus, 1); Abhishek Das (2) bt Marc Narcisco Dublan (Esp, 1).

Julen Arizmendi Martinez (Esp, 1.5) drew with Padmini Rout (1.5); Rashad Babaev (Aze, 2) bt T. Purushothaman (1); Kiran Manisha Mohanty (1) lost to Abhijeet Gupta (2); Sahaj Grover (1) lost to Herman van Riemsdijk (Bra, 2).

Soumya Swaminathan (2) bt B. Adhiban (1); Ashwin Jayaram (2) bt Belinda Vega Gutierrez (Esp, 1); Pedro Mascaro March (Esp, 2) bt L. Iswarya Shobana (1) l Dinesh KumarSharma (2) bt Albert Sanuy Moncasi (Esp, 1).

Kruttika Nadig (0.5) drew with Levan Aroshidze (Geo, 0.5); Devangi Patankar (1) bt Dimitri Ivanov Markov (Esp, 0).

Correction: Abhijeet Gupta had won the first round match and not as reported on Wednesday.