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Sport - Chess

Another good day for Indians

Manuel Aaron

Only one Indian — Nisha Mohota — was held to a draw
Venkatesh blundered a knight against GM Kudrin

Philadelphia: The first round in the five-day schedule section of the 36th World Open turned out to be a good one for the Indians. Only one Indian — Nisha Mohota — was held to a draw while all others won.

When the round began at the Sheraton City Centre Hotel on Wednesday, there was some confusion as S.S. Ganguly and Parimarjan Negi found their names missing from the pairing list. The organisers then paired them with some late comers and they played on the 69th and 70th tables.

The U.S. Chess Federation has its own National rating for its players and that is being followed in the tournament. Those who have FIDE ratings are given the equivalent by adding 100 points to their FIDE rating.

However, the organisers failed to add 100 for K. Ratnakaran.

The Kozhikode lad had some difficulty in his game when his opponent threatened to checkmate him. However, Ratnakaran sacrificed his queen to turn the tables on his opponent.

In the seven-day schedule section which completed its third round on Wednesday, M.R. Venkatesh blundered a knight against Grandmaster Sergey Kudrin in a dominating position.

He made an unacceptable knight sacrifice against the Dragon variation. A move later, the position had altered and Venkatesh forgot to move his knight away. Kudrin grabbed the knight and went on to win.

The results (involving Indians):

Five-day schedule: McMillan lost to S.S. Ganguly; Abhijit Kunte bt Deddy Coleman; Jonathan Tayar lost to G.N. Gopal; K. Ratnakaran bt Michael Thelar; Victor Shen lost to S. Arun Prasad; Parimarjan Negi bt Jason Drake; R.R. Laxman bt Daniel Narodizky; Eesha Karavade bt Richard Francisco; Nisha Mohota drew with Boris Reichstein; Swati Ghate bt Eric Hansen;

Seven-day schedule: Aarthie Ramaswamy drew with Chikwere Onyekvere (Ngr); Saimeera Ravi lost to Igor Sorkin; Kiran Mohanty lost to David Puress; M.R. Venkatesh lost to Sergey Kudrin.

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