Second GM norm for Lalith Babu
Arvind Aaron
Chennai, February 3, 2010
Former National junior champion Lalith Babu of Andhra Pradesh scored a defensive victory over Dmitry Kryakvin of Russia in the tenth round to complete his second Grand Master norm in the Chennai Open 2010 International Grand Master chess tournament being played here on Tuesday.
This victory of Lalith Babu also opened up the title chances as he and Ziaur Rahman (Bangladesh) are on 8.5 points and they moved half a point closer to the leader to share the second-third positions.
IM Vikramaditya Kamble of Mumbai drew with overnight leader Grand Master Maxim Turov of Russia in an effortless 41-move encounter. Turov’s lead was trimmed from one point to half and he is on nine points.
Four players are tied for the fourth position on eight points: R. Siddharth, Ashwin Jayaram, V. Kamble and R. Bitoon (Phi).
Flawless technique
Lalith Babu’s win was marked by flawless technique. Kryakvin’s knight sacrifice for two pawns proved insufficient after 68 moves. Ashwin Jayaram outplayed GM Marat Dzhumaev in 45 moves by winning pawns at leisure while playing with the white pieces.
Siddharth of Chennai celebrated his GM norm achievement by winning with the black pieces against Satyapragyan of Orissa. First, he won a pawn, then squeezed that to win a marathon ending after 85 moves.
The best women player so far is S. Vijayalakshmi (7.5/10) of Chennai who accounted for Chennai schoolboy Shyam Nikhil. She sacrificed a knight on move 24 to win a pawn using a pin which sealed the game in 31 moves.
Here is the full article.
Final Ranking after 11 Rounds
Rk. Name FED Rtg Club/City Pts. TB1 TB2 TB3 w-we K rtg+/-
1 GM Turov Maxim RUS 2584 9,5 85,0 71,0 55,5 1,57 10 15,7
2 GM Rahman Ziaur BAN 2548 9,0 85,0 69,0 53,5 1,28 10 12,8
3 Siddharth R IND 2424 9,0 82,0 67,5 52,5 3,11 15 46,7
4 IM Lalith Babu M R IND 2457 9,0 81,0 67,0 52,5 2,59 15 38,8
5 IM Kamble Vikramaditya IND 2364 8,5 81,0 67,0 52,0 2,75 10 27,5
6 GM Jumabayev Rinat KAZ 2536 8,5 79,5 64,5 49,5 0,52 10 5,2
7 IM Bitoon Richard PHI 2458 8,5 78,5 64,5 50,5 0,82 10 8,2
8 GM Sundararajan Kidambi IND 2526 8,5 75,0 61,5 48,0 0,20 10 2,0
9 IM Vijayalakshmi Subbaraman IND 2464 8,5 70,0 57,0 44,0 0,21 10 2,1
10 Anwesh Upadhyaya IND 2400 8,0 82,0 68,0 53,0 2,36 15 35,4
11 GM Dzhumaev Marat UZB 2515 8,0 82,0 67,0 52,5 0,53 10 5,3
12 GM Manik Mikulas SVK 2435 8,0 81,0 67,0 52,0 0,92 10 9,2
13 IM Venkatesh M R IND 2432 8,0 79,0 65,0 51,0 0,90 10 9,0
14 Fenil Shah IND 2201 8,0 78,5 65,0 51,0 3,83 15 57,5
15 GM Deepan Chakkravarthy J IND 2492 8,0 78,5 65,0 50,0 -0,01 10 -0,1
16 GM Zubarev Alexander UKR 2544 8,0 78,5 64,0 50,0 -0,25 10 -2,5
17 IM Ashwin Jayaram IND 2434 8,0 78,0 63,5 49,5 1,25 10 12,5
18 Swayams Mishra IND 2340 8,0 77,0 62,5 49,0 2,30 15 34,5
19 GM Kotsur Pavel KAZ 2568 8,0 74,5 60,5 47,0 -0,99 10 -9,9
20 IM Thejkumar M S IND 2435 8,0 69,0 57,5 45,0 -0,35 10 -3,5
21 GM Laxman R R IND 2503 8,0 69,0 57,0 44,5 -1,00 10 -10,0
22 Thakur Akash IND 2331 8,0 69,0 57,0 44,0 1,02 15 15,3