Ukraine's Sergey Wassin leads with 5.5 points after 6th round

Margao, Oct 16 (UNI) In a major upset, Sergej Wassin (Ukraine) defeated the leader Sergey Kirlov (Russia) In the sixth round of the XIth Individual world Chess Championship for Blind in progress at Varca in South Goa.

This could be a deciding factor in the championship which have already seen a lot of action till this round.

It was an equal development in the Sicilian defence for 2 leaders of round 5. In an early middle game Skirmish, Krylov had to forgo a pawn and had to insist with an attack on the king side. For him, the material loss was not a matter at all and he had a complete control over Wassin's king side camp, but atlast on the 38th move, Krylov moved his Queen to e3 square completely overlooking his rook at f1. It was a matter of technique for Wassim after that and he bundled out Krylov after another 5 moves to register a crucial and stunning win to lead with 5.5 points.

Sergey Smirnov (Russia) beat Jorgen Magnusson (Sweden) and Vasily Guzynin (Russia) beat Ryszard Sunder (Poland). The Indians did not have a great day when 6 out of 8 players lost and only one could drew their game. Srikrishna Udapa lost to three time woman world champion and gold medalist at the Turin Chess Olympaid, Lubov Zsiltzova. Playing with black pieces, Udapa replied with the Pelican variation of the Sicilian defence and moved in a good position. Till the end, both the players looked very strong and the game was likely to end in a draw. But in the last few moves, Zsiltzova uped the pressure and forced Udappa to resign after 61 moves.

Darshan Patel and Madan Bagayatkar drew their matches but Shirish patil lost to Jose Manuel (Spain). Swapnil Shah lost to Mikhalev Alexy (Russia), Gaurav Gadodia lost to Viktor Konev (Ukraine).

After 6 rounds, Sergey Wassin (Ukraine) leads with 5.5 points, followed by Sergie Smirnov and Vasily Guzynin (both Russia) are joint second with 5 points each and Sergey Krylov who lead till round 5 is in the third position with 4.5 points.

UNI SRN PM PDS ND1344