Seven players share top spot in Kolkata Open

Kolkata, Mar 30 (UNI) Seven players share the lead at the Alekhine Chess Club organised 3rd Kolkata Open Grandmaster Chess Tournament.

As many as 14 players are in the joint second spot, half a point adrift of the leaders.

The top board game was an exciting affair. Top seeded Krishnan Sasikiran played the black side of a Queens Gambit accepted variation against Grandmaster Viktor Laznicka of the Czech Republic and seemed to have an advantage throughout. He even won a pawn in the endgame but could not break through in the king and pawn endgame.

City based Grandmaster Sandipan Chanda had a quick victory over International Master V.Saravanan in 26 moves of a Slav defence.

Saravanan pushed his kingside pawns to create weaknesses, which were well exploited by the local Grandmaster. He is now in the joint lead.

International Master Saptarshi Roy maintained his good form to draw against Grandmaster Ziaur Rahaman from the black side of a Reti opening in 22 moves. Both players did not bother to play on in a balanced position. Saptarshi is zeroing in to his GM norm.

Super Grandmaster Koneru Humpy defeated Grandmaster Dibyendu Barua with the white pieces. Barua opted for the Semi-Slav variation after decling the Queens gambit and was slowly crushed. He had to resign on the 48th turn in a hopeless position.

The fifth board game between Grandmasters Tejas Bakre of India and Alberto David of Luxembourg was a dampener ending in only eleven moves of an English opening.

World Junior Champion Adly Ahmed bounced back into the reckoning with a fine victory over Oliver Barbosa of the Philippines in 28 moves of a Reti Opening. Adly went for a kingside attack and sacrificed an exchange to eventually break through.

Grandmaster Nguyen Anh Dung of Vietnam kept himself at the top of the table with a hard fought draw against Grandmaster Ghaem Maghami of Iran.

Top board results:- GM Viktor Laznicka (5.5) drew with GM Krishnan Sasikiran(5.5) GM Ziaur Rahman (5.5) drew with IM Saptarshi Roy (5.5) GM Ghaem Maghami (5) drew with GM Nguyen Anh Dung (5) GM Koneru Humpy (5.5) beat GM Dibyendu Barua (4.5) IM V.Saravanan (4.5) lost to GM Sandipan Chanda (5.5) GM Tejas Bakre (5) drew with GM Alberto David (5) Rolando Nolte (5) drew with GM Safin Shukhrat (5) GM Adly Ahmed (5) beat Oliver Barbosa (4) IM S.Satyapragyan (4) lost to GM Abdulla Al-Rakib (5) IM Himanshu Sharma (4) lost to GM Vladimir Dobrov (5) UNI BA AB VC2018