Areshchenko takes sole lead in Mumbai

Areshchenko takes sole lead after round six
Wed. May 06, 2009; Posted: 09:53 PM

Mumbai, May 05, 2009 (Asia Pulse Data Source via COMTEX) — Grand Master Alexander Areshchenko of Ukraine leapfrogged to the sole pole position at the end of the sixth round in the Mayor’s Cup International Chess Tournament at the Goregaon Sports Club here today.

The second seed, with an ELO rating of 2657, emerged the undisputed leader in the Rs 12-lakh prize money event by overcoming fifth-seeded GM Abhijeet Gupta of India in 46 moves for his sixth straight win.

Fourth seed GM Koneru Humpy of India, with an ELO of 2612, and sixth seed Andrei Deviatkin of Russia (ELO 2566) were in joint second spot with 5.5 points each just past the halfway stage of the 11-round Venus Chess Academy-conducted tournament.

India’s Woman GM Soumya Swaminathan pulled off the biggest surprise of the day when she outsmarted seventh-seeded Ukrainian GM Alexander Zubarev to log five points. She was joint third with 21 others.

In the top board clash, Areshchenko played the Spanish game against Gupta (ELO 2570) and by the 23rd move all the pieces were exchanged by the duo barring a pair of rooks and knights.

The Ukrainian GM used his rook to push forward his ‘b’ passer and also sacrificed his knight for a pawn. With Areshchenko’s ‘b’ and ‘c’ file-pawns relentlessly marching on along with the king, his Indian opponent saw no escape route and quit.

Source: http://www.tradingmarkets.com

Standings after 8 rounds:

Rk.			Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1		GM	Areshchenko Alexander	UKR	2657	7,5	44,5	34,0	41,25
2		GM	Miroshnichenko Evgenij	UKR	2680	7,0	45,5	34,5	39,25
3		GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J	IND	2482	7,0	44,0	32,5	36,50
4		GM	Panchanathan Magesh Chandran	IND	2462	7,0	37,5	30,0	32,75
5		GM	Koneru Humpy	IND	2612	6,5	46,5	34,5	36,75
6		GM	Deviatkin Andrei	RUS	2566	6,5	44,0	33,5	34,00
7		GM	Timoshenko Georgy	UKR	2550	6,5	42,5	32,5	33,25
8		GM	Belov Vladimir	RUS	2623	6,5	42,5	32,0	33,75
9		GM	Kostenko Petr	KAZ	2490	6,5	40,5	31,0	32,25
10			Thakur Akash	IND	2308	6,5	40,0	30,5	30,75
11		GM	Safin Shukhrat	UZB	2485	6,5	39,5	29,5	30,75
12		IM	Suvrajit Saha	IND	2380	6,5	37,0	28,0	29,75

Here are the full standings.