The Hindu : Sport / Chess : Top players have it tough

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Wednesday, Mar 26, 2008
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Top players have it tough

Special Correspondent

KOLKATA: It was a day of the underdogs on the top boards of the third Kolkata Open Grandmaster chess tournament at the Gorky Sadan here on Tuesday. Two of the three super GMs had to split points while the third came through with much difficulty in the second round action.

Top seed GM Krishnan Sasikiran, playing with white pieces, faced the Slav defence of Oliver Barbosa of the Philippines. The Indian launched the attack on the queenside and enjoyed a better position throughout but came a cropper towards the end and was forced to split the point.

Woman Grandmaster Nisha Mohota gave some anxious moments to GM Smbat Lputian of Armenia before the latter won the game. The Armenian played the Nimzo Indian defence and in the endgame used the pawn push to good advantage to win in 50 moves.

GM Koneru Humpy found her opponent IM S. Satyapragyan in a determined mood and was forced to draw the encounter in 57 moves. GM Viktor Laznicka of the Czech Republic beat IM Saptarshi Roy in 42 moves of a Sicilian defence.

Important results (Indians unless stated otherwise): K. Sasikiran (1.5) drew with Oliver Barbosa (PHI, 1.5), Nisha Mohota (1) lost to Smbat Lputian (ARM, 2), Koneru Humpy (1.5) drew with S. Satyapragyan (1.5), Saptarshi Roy (1) lost to Viktor Laznicka (CZE, 2), Sandipan Chanda (1.5) drew with Arghyadip Das (1.5), Alberto David (LUX, 1) lost to P. Konguvel (2), Akshayraj Kore (1.5) drew with Adly Ahmed (EGY, 1.5), Nguyen Anh Dung (VIE, 2) beat Vikramaditya Kamble (1), Abdulla Al-Rakib (BAN, 1) lost to M.S. Thejkumar (2), Mahmood Lodhi (PAK, 1) lost to Vladimir Dobrov (RUS, 2). — Special Correspondent

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