Le leads while Mamedyarov surges

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  Anonymous says:

  September 9, 2009 at 6:19 pm

  This is one strong tournament

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  Jagdish Dube says:

  September 10, 2009 at 2:58 am

  Liem continues as leader in Kolkata Open
  IANS 9 September 2009, 10:01pm IST

  KOLKATA: Grandmaster Le Quang Liem of Vietnam won his top board encounter against Uzbek GM Anton Filippov to sit pretty on top of the heap after
  the penultimate round at the 4th Kolkata Open Grandmaster Chess Tournament on Wednesday.

  Le (7.5) employed his favourite Caro-Kann defence and soon there were opposite coloured bishops and a few other pieces on the board. The Vietnamese used his better developed pieces to get in a kingside attack and Filippov (6.5) had to eventually throw in the towel in a hopeless position.

  GM Viktor Laznicka (7), half a point adrift of Liem, has emerged as the closest challenger of the leader.

  Both Liem and Laznicka have already met each other and will be playing different opponents in the final round.

  Laznicka won a fine game against Evgeny Postny (6) of Israel to get the sole second spot. He defended the desperate kingside attack of the Israeli to eventually win a pawn in the endgame after which it was easy for him.

  British GM Nigel Short (6)could not break through the defences of IM S Satyapragyan (6) and settled for a draw, even though he had the better pawn structure.

  IM RR Laxman (6) became the country’s twentieth Grandmaster after he got a draw against GM Rauf Mamedov of Azerbaijan. He has completed all his three norms and also the rating threshold of 2500 stipulated by world body FIDE.

  FM Sahaj Grover topped off a wonderful tournament with his maiden GM norm. He drew against IM Sriram Jha. Sahaj already has the requisite number of IM norms but has not yet touched the 2400 rating threshold.

  Both Sandipan Chanda (6.5) and Surya Sekhar Ganguly (6.5) won their respective games against IM B.Adhiban (5.5) and GM Rustam Khusnutdinov (5.5) of Kazakhstan. It dented Adhiban’s chances of getting the GM norm.

  Vidit Gujrathi, Shyam Nikhil, Abhishek Das, Ankit Rajpara and Shiven Khosla achieved their nine game IM norms.

  According to the organisers, the central government has sanctioned a Rs.600,000 grant-in-aid for the tournament.
  THE TIMES OF INDIA,Dated the 9th September 2009.

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  Jagdish Dube says:

  September 10, 2009 at 3:06 am

  Liem poised to win Kolkata Open.

  KOLKATA: Grandmaster Le Quang Liem of Vietnam is poised to win the fourth Kolkata Open chess tournament.

  The 18-year-old won the top board encounter against GM Anton Filippov of Uzbekistan with black pieces on Wednesday to be on top of the leaderboard with 7.5 points.

  Viktor Laznicka is following the leader half a point behind.
  Laxman becomes GM

  It was great day for Chennai-based International Master R.R. Laxman. He achieved his final GM norm by drawing his ninth round game against GM Rauf Mamedov of Azerbaijan. He becomes the country’s 20th GM.

  “I have completed all the formalities needed to become a GM. I have to apply to FIDE to confirm the title,” said an elated Laxman.

  Though Laxman’s rating is less than mandatory 2500 as of now, he will have no problem because he had reached the rating threshold of 2500 stipulated by FIDE earlier.

  Liem adopted his favourite Caro-Kann defence in a game which soon had opposite coloured bishops and a few other pieces on the board. The Vietnamese used his better-developed pieces to get in a kingside attack. Filippov had to resign in a hopeless position.

  IM Satyapragyan, who achieved a GM norm on Tuesday, held off GM Nigel Short. The Englishman could not break through the impregnable defence put up by the Indian even though he had the better pawn structure. Short decided to settle for a draw.
  IM Norm for Sahaj

  FIDE Master Sahaj Grover earned his maiden GM norm by drawing against IM Sriram Jha. Sahaj already has the requisite number of IM norms but has not yet touched the 2400 rating threshold.

  The sad story of the day was that of Vidit Gujrathi, who going into the ninth round, needed a win against S. Kidambi. The GM denied the youngster a win despite the latter enjoying a better position.

  Vidit, who sobbed uncontrollably after the contest, would play GM Petr Kostenko of Kazakhstan in the final round. Probably a draw would help him to achieve the norm.

  P. Shyam Nikhil, Abhishek Das, Ankit Rajpara and Shiven Khosla all achieved their nine-game IM norm.

  The results (top 15 boards): Anton Filippov (Uzb, 6.5) lost to Le Quang Liem (Vie, 6.5); Viktor Laznicka (Cze, 7) bt Evgeny Postny (Isr, 6); Nigel Short (Eng, 6) drew with S. Satyapragyan (Ind, 6); Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Aze, 6.5) bt Merab Gagunashvili (Geo, 5.5); Aleksej Aleksandrov (Blr, 6) drew with Eltaj Safarli (Aze, 6); Surya Sekhar Ganguly (Ind, 6.5) bt Rustam Khusnutdinov (Kaz, 5.5); R.R. Laxman (Ind, 6) drew with Rauf Mamedov (Aze, 6); G.N. Gopal (Ind, 6) drew with Parimarjan Negi (Ind, 6).

  Sandipan Chanda (Ind, 6.5) bt B. Adhiban (Ind, 5.5); Jan Markos (Svk, 5) lost to Ni Hua (Chn, 6); Ziaur Rahman (Ban, 5.5) drew with Vladislav Tkachiev (Fra, 5.5); Abhijit Kunte (Ind, 5.5) drew with Gadir Guseinov (Aze, 5.5); Mikheil Mchedlishvili (Geo, 6) bt Deepan Chakkravarthy (Ind, 5); M.S. Thejkumar (Ind, 5) lost to Abhijeet Gupta (Ind, 6); Tiger Hillarp Persson (Swe, 5.5) bt Sayantan Das (Ind, 5).

  http://www.hindu.com/2009/09/10/stories/2009091057131900.htm

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  Surat says:

  October 2, 2009 at 9:55 am

  Good posting!