D P Singh shocks GM Sandipan Chanda

Panaji, Aug 11 (UNI) Kolkata Grandmaster and top seed Sandipan Chanda (elo 2543) was stunned by his Olympiad teammate IM D P Singh (elo 2414) in the eighth round to set up a fascinating finale in the All India FIDE Rating tournament in progress at the Club de Tennis Gaspar Dias Mimarmar in Goa.

While IM Rahul Shetty (elo 2304) upset Grandmaster norm holder IM Abhijit Gupta ( 2424) and Goan coach Avinash Malvankar (1908) shocked DCF Champion KBL Srivasatva (elo 2074) of New Delhi to round off a truly sensational day.

IM D P Singh, who holds the lead with 7 points with just three rounds to go, had prepared for Sandipan's Ruy Lopez. However, Chanda deliberately took it into the four Knights variation and even offered a draw after 14 moves. Singh, who had come with resolute conviction for nothing less than a victory, refused and then went on to completely outplay his opponent positionally. The ''a pown'' passer then proved decisive in the endgame wherein the Calcutta Grandmaster had to concede defeat.

GM norm holder Abhijit Gupta lost to IM Rahul Sheety in just 20 moves. In the fashionable ''a6'' slav defence, Abhijit could not get going and Rahul who had beat GM Evgeny Bareev (2683) in the Canadian open recently continued his fine showing with an effortless victory. World U 10 champion Sahaj Grover (2024) was lucky to get the better of Ketaki Kulkarni (2003). Ketaki was clearly plus and had several opportunities to win. However, she could not convert her advanatage in the keenly contested game and finally blundered in time pressure to eventually resign. The other World champion N Srinath (2166) had to be content with a draw with Asian Silver Medalist Vidit Gujarathi (2168) after the latter could not convert his material advantage into a win.

Goan Malvankar beat Srivastava of New Delhi. In a Sicilian Defence, Malvankar unleashed an upstoppable kingside attack to pocket the point comfortably in 34 moves. Three of the unrated Goan played scored cruicial wins in this round brining much satisfaction to the home crowd.

UNI SRN KU AY HT1945