It is all over for two GMs

It is all over for two GMs
BIPIN SHENOY
Wednesday , September 2 , 2009

Calcutta: Two Grandmasters found the going tough and bit the dust on the opening day of the Kolkata Open chess tournament at Gorky Sadan Tuesday.

IM Suvrajit Saha of Railways spurned the peace treaty offer of GM Anton Filippov of Uzbekistan to outplay him in the endgame while young Shiven Khosla handed GM Sundararajan Kidambi a 20-move defeat in a Ruy Lopez.

Rahul Sangma of Delhi caused a flutter when he held the third seed, Ni Hua of China, to a draw by putting up a gritty defence in a double rook ending where he had a pawn less. Sangma, however, won back the pawn with active play and went into a king and pawn endgame. The game was drawn in 47 moves when neither side could make any headway.

Fourth seed, GM Vladislav Tkachiev, too, had to sweat it out against K. Priyadarshan only to split the point while Akash Thakur held GM Evgeny Postny to a draw in 39 moves.

GM Parimarjan Negi found IM Vikramaditya Kamble’s defences tough to crack and had to agree to a draw.

Top seed, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan, began his campaign with awin against B.S. Shivananda of India. Shivananda’s Grunfeld defence proved inadequate against Mamedyarov’s fine attacking skills. Mamedyarov’s pawn thrust f5 on move 20 broke open his opponent’s kingside, which he exploited to the hilt by transferring his rooks on that wing to create a mating net around the king.

Second seed, GM Nigel Short, gave Prathemesh Mokal a lesson in Ruy Lopez with the black pieces as he outplayed his opponent with effortless ease.

GM Gadir Guseinov made short work of V. Saravanan of India in a Sicilian defence. Guseinov sacrifised the rook for knight on the 17th move after which Saravanan’s pieces lost their co-ordination.

Meanwhile, Anna Zozulia here to participate, lost her passport and money on Tuesday. The Belgian WGM has lodged a police complain and investigations were on.

Source: http://www.telegraphindia.com