The Hindu : Sport / Chess : Saptarshi Roy stuns Neelotpal Das

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Saptarshi Roy stuns Neelotpal Das

KOLKATA: International Master Saptarshi Roy caused a major upset by getting the better of Grandmaster Neelotpal Das in the sixth round to share the lead with four other GMs with five points in the third Kolkata Open chess tournament here on Saturday.

The top board encounter between GMs Nguyen Anh Dung of Vietnam and Ziaur Rahman of Bangladesh ended in a draw taking both to five points. Top seed and super GM Krishnan Sasikiran produced a brilliant win against world junior champion Adly Ahmed of Egypt and joined the leaders. Meanwhile, Czech GM Viktor Laznicka drew with GM Sandipan Chanda and he too made it to the leader board with five points.

Sensational win

Roy’s sensational victory against GM Das was achieved in 53 moves of a Sicilian Taimanov opening. Roy enjoyed the upper hand right from the opening gambit and finished it off with an effective combination.

This win enabled him to be on course for a GM norm.

Sasikiran, playing white, exerted tremendous pressure on world junior champion Adly Ahmed throughout the game arising out of the Queen’s Gambit declined opening. Finally he broke through the resistance of the Egyptian who conceded defeat on the 43rd move when faced with an imminent loss of a rook.

Chanda and Czech GM Laznicka had a hard-fought draw on the second board. Nine players including Chanda were in the joint second place with 4.5 points each.

Important results (Indians, unless stated otherwise): Nguyen Anh Dung (Vie, 5) drew with Z. Rahman (Ban, 5); S. Chanda (4.5) drew with V. Laznicka (Cze, 5); K. Sasikiran (5) bt Adly Ahmed (Egy, 4); D. Barua (4.5) drew with G. Maghami (Ira, 4.5); A. David (Lux, 4.5) drew with V. Saravanan (4.5); Saptarshi Roy (5) bt Neelotpal Das (4); Rolando Nolte (Phi, 4.5) bt Smbat Lputian (Arm, 3.5); Farhat Ali (Egy, 3.5) lost to Koneru Humpy (4.5); Abdulla Al-Rakib (Ban, 4) drew with Himanshu Sharma (4); Safin Shukhrat (Uzb, 4.5) bt M.S. Thejkumar (3.5). — Special Correspondent

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