Humpy held Kamksy but slip to fifth spot in Gibtelecom Masters

PTI, 4 February 2010, 05:54pm IST

GIBRALTAR: Indian Grandmaster Koneru Humpy had to settle for another draw but this time against highly regarded GM Gata Kamsky of the United States to slip to the joint fifth spot after the ninth round of the Gibtelecom Masters chess tournament.

Grandmaster Sandipan Chanda also conceded half point against lower ranked Drasko Boskovic of Serbia, while GM G N Gopal defeated compatriot International Master D Harika in a hard-fought game.

Overnight sole leader Jan Gustafsson of Germany also played out a predictable draw with white pieces against top seed Etienne Bacrot.

With two rounds to to, as many as four players – Gustafsson, Sergei Movsesian of Slovakia, Spaniard Francisco Vallejo Pons and Michael Adams of England emerged as the joint leaders on seven points.

On 6.5 points each, Humpy, Chanda and Gopal share fifth place along with nine others. However, the trio has a chance to join the leaders’ pack if they win the final round game and the top games end in draws.

Humpy, meanwhile, has an additional opportunity of winning the top women award that amounts to 8000 Pounds Sterling.

Among other Indians in the fray, Tania Sachdev displayed good form to beat Yves Duhayon of Belgium while International Master V Saravanan accounted for Francois Weber of Spain. Eesha Karavade drew with Russian Sergey Fokin but Kruttika Nadig went down to Peter Flermoen of Norway.

Humpy played a chance less draw against Kamsky. Playing the white side of a Fianchetto Slav, the Indian got a good position out of the opening and held it together.

The pieces got exchanged at regular intervals and the players arrived at a heavy pieces endgame with just four pawns apiece when the two players decided to sign the peace after 37 moves.

Here is the full story.

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