GM norm holder Abhijit loses, Pinge holds World Champion Srinath

Panaji, Aug 9 (UNI) Rajasthan's international master and GM norm holder Abhijit Gupta (ELO 2424) was beaten by Umakanth Sharma (ELO 2252) of Jharkhand in the fifth round of the All India Fide Rating tournament here.

Sharma, champion in the Annavaran tournament, employed the Richter Rauzer attack in the Sicilian defence and subsequently the game took on a very complicated demeanour. After 49 moves, Gupta resigned when confronted with an inevitable defeat. Gupta, who has been in top form, had recently completed his first GM norm at Andorra in Spain.

In another exciting game, Goan youngster Shubham Pinge (ELO 2003) drew with world Under-12 champion N Srinath (ELO 2166). Srinath went in for the attack right off the bat by employing the ultra sharp Benko Gambit. However, Pinge seemed to have an answer for everything that Srinath threw at him. The Queens were eventually exchanged and the subsequent drawn endgame left Shubham extremely ''pleased''.

This is the second time in the tournament that world champion has been forced to draw by the Goan youngsters.

Unrated Celianne Carvalho continued her fine run by holding British player Jessica Abrame (ELO 1895) to a draw. In a Queen's gambit declined, both players were not really keen to take up the cudgels and the peace treaty was signed hurriedly in just 22 moves.

Manmesh Naik also did well to hold Charudatta Desai (ELO 2021) in a French defence, which ended in 60 moves and is now certain of a decent initial rating when the FIDE list is rleased in October.

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