Sasikiran, Laznicka are joint leaders- Grandmasters meet set for an absorbing finish
BIPIN SHENOY
Calcutta: The Calcutta Open Grandmasters Chess tournament at Alekhine Chess Club is set for an absorbing finish on Wednesday morning. Top seed Krishnan Sasikiran and Viktor Laznicka of Czech Republic jointly share the lead with 7.5 points each after the penultimate round.
Laznicka, who meets world junior champion Adly Ahmed in the final round, however, is better placed in the tie break and a win would seal the title for him. Laznicka would be looking to settle scores against Adly Ahmed as he had lost to him in the world junior meet in October in Armenia.
Laznicka played yet another exciting game to overwhelm Koneru Humpy in a Catalan opening on Tuesday. Laznicka obtained a positional advantage from the opening and then went to win two pawns after which Humpy called it quits.
Sasikiran, who trampled GM Sandipan Chanda, is likely to go all out for a win against S. Arun Prasad. Playing with the black pieces, Sasikiran made most of the chances offered by Sandipan in a Sicilian defence and won the game by first giving up his rook for bishop and then making good use of his bishops against Sandipan’s weakened kingside.
The day, however, belonged to S. Arun Prasad, who completed his third and final GM norm by getting the better of GM Vladimir Dobrov of Russia. Arun will now have to increase his rating to 2500 to get the GM title.
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Is there a website for this tournament? I can’t find it.
This tournament website you can find here: http://www.alekhinechessclub.com/
You can find here also: http://www.alekhinechessclub.com/3kolkata.html
The final standing after round 9 (1 April 2008)
Rank after round 9
Rank SNo. Name Rtg FED Pts RtgØ
1 4 GM Laznicka Viktor 2595 CZE 7½ 2506
2 1 GM Sasikiran Krishnan 2677 IND 7½ 2472
3 26 IM Arun Prasad S 2423 IND 7 2369
4 5 GM Sandipan Chanda 2593 IND 6½ 2475
5 3 GM Koneru Humpy 2612 IND 6½ 2451
6 14 GM Rahman Ziaur 2492 BAN 6½ 2447
7 8 GM Adly Ahmed 2551 EGY 6½ 2446
8 19 GM Bakre Tejas 2459 IND 6½ 2439
9 27 Nolte Rolando 2412 PHI 6½ 2426
10 13 GM Safin Shukhrat 2493 UZB 6½ 2392
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