Sasikiran leads with Viktor at Ninth round

Kolkata, Apr 1 (UNI) Top seed Grandmaster Krishnan Sasikiran and Grandmaster Viktor Laznicka of the Czech Republic shared the lead at the third Kolkata Open Grandmaster Chess Tournament being held at the Alekhine Chess Club here today.

Sasikiran played an excellent game against city based Grandmaster Sandipan Chanda to stretch his lead to half a point over the chasing pack. Sandipan was under pressure against Sasikiran's Sicilian defence and eventually threw in the towel on the 36th move, when he was about to be checkmated.

International Master Arun Prasad of India and Rolando Nolte of the Philippines made their 9 game GM norms by winning their respective games against Grandmasters Vladimir Dobrov of Russia and Abdulla Al-Rakib of Bangladesh respectively.

International Master Arun Prasad was half-a-point adrift of the leader. He was the hero of the day after he defeated Grandmaster Vladimir Dobrov of Russia to jump to the second spot.

The IM also needed the win to achieve the GM norm and he achieved it easily.

Grandmaster Viktor Laznicka of the Czech Republic played another impressive game. He defeated Grandmaster Koneru Humpy to remain on top of the leaderboard.

International Master Saptarshi Roy needed a win against Grandmaster Ghaem Maghami of Iran to achieve his maiden GM norm. He, however, tried his level best but could not penetrate the rock solid defences of his illustrious opponent. He still has some mathematical chances of getting the GM norm if he wins his last round game.

On the third board Grandmaster Adly Ahmed of Egypt and Safin Shukhrat of Uzbekistan played it safe to split the point in only 11 moves.

The hero of the day was International Master Arun Prasad of India who defeated Grandmaster Vladimir Dobrov of Russia to jump to the second spot. The IM also needed the win to achieve the GM norm and he achieved it easily.

In a clash of Indian Grandmasters, Dibyendu Barua came out second best against Tejas Bakre in an interesting tussle.

GM Sandipan Chanda (6.5) lost to GM Krishnan Sasikiran (7.5) GM Viktor Laznicka (7.5) beat GM Koneru Humpy (6.5) GM Adly Ahmed (6.5) drew with GM Safin Shukhrat (6.5) IM Arun Prasad (7) beat GM Vladimir Dobrov(6) GM Ghaem Maghami (6) drew with IM Saptarshi Roy (6) GM Nguyen Anh Dung (6) drew with GM R.B.Ramesh (6) Rolando Nolte (6.5) beat GM Abdulla Al-Rakib(5.5) GM Ziaur Rahman (6.5) beat IM P.Konguvel (5.5) GM Tejas Bakre (6.5) beat GM Dibyendu Barua (5.5) GM Smbat Lputian (5.5) drew with Oliver Barbosa (5.5) UNI XC-PC ADG AB KP1957