Czech wizard Viktor Laznicka wins Kol GM Chess, Sasikiran lost

Kolkata, Apr 2 (UNI) Grandmaster Viktor Laznicka of the Czech Republic emerged winner by virtue of better tiebreak score in the third Kolkata Open Grandmaster Chess championship as he along with top seed Krishnan Sasikiran finished on 8.5 points.

Both Sasikiran and Laznicka had to try for victory against their respective opponents International Master Arun Prasad of India and Grandmaster Adly Ahmed of Egypt in order to put pressure on each other.

Sasikiran had the advantage of the lighter pieces in his game and after his opponent opted for the Slav defence he went for a queenside attack, which eventually earned him a pawn. With his extra material he went on an exchanging spree, which eventually earned him the point on the 52nd move.

Viktor got the winners trophy and prize money of Rs 2, 00,000 and Sasikiran bagged Rs 1,60,000.

The second board game was more exciting Laznicka needed to win his game with the black pieces against the World Junior Champion Adly Ahmed. Adly tried out the Reti opening and Laznicka countered aggressively by keeping his pieces on active squares. Adly miscalculated a combination and lost an exchange after which the Czech player went for a direct kingside attack sacrificing his rook to set up mating threats which could not be defended.

Adly resigned on the 41st move.

Most of the players on the top boards took the safe option and went for draws in order to get into the top half of the prize list.

Only Grandmaster Safin Shukhrat of Uzbekistan took the chance of getting a better prize and it paid off when he beat Grandmaster Tejas Bakre of India thereby assuring himself of the 3rd spot.

Top board results: GM Viktor Laznicka (8.5) beat GM Adly Ahmed (6.5) GM Krishnan Sasikiran (8.5) beat IM Arun Prasad(7) GM Koneru Humpy (7) drew with GM Ziaur Rahman (7) Rolando Nolte (7) drew with GM Sandipan Chanda (7) GM Safin Shukhrat (7.5) beat GM Tejas Bakre (6.5) IM Ashwin Jayaram (7) beat GM Ghaem Maghami (6) GM Alberto David (7) beat GM Vladimir Dobrov (6) GM Nguyen Anh Dung (6.5) drew with IM Sundararajan Kidambi (6.5) IM Saptarshi Roy (6.5) drew with GM R B Ramesh (6.5) GM Smbat Lputian (6.5) beat IM G B Prakash (6) In all 30 players received prize money totaling Rs 9,00,000 Tournament was held at Alekhine Chess Club organised by the Gitanjali Group.

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