UBEDA (SPAIN), Jan 25: Indian Grandmaster Dibyendu Barua (4.5) survived many anxious moments before overcoming a spirited challenge from International Master Javad Maherramzade (3.5) of Armenia in the fifth round of Ubeda International Chess tournament today.Barua now shares lead with Grandmasters Walter Arencibia (Cuba), Bogdan Lalic (Croatia) and International Master Yannick Pe Lletier (Switzerland).
Indians suffered setbacks in their quest for Grandmaster norms. D V Prasad was outplayed by Woman GM Zhu Chen (China) while K Murugan was checkmated by Greek GM Dmitry Agnos. National champion Anupama Gokhale and Asian zonal champion S Vijayalakshmi lost their games to IM Evgeni Piankov (Ukraine) and GM Gildardo Garcia (Colombia) respectively.
Barua was not in his usual form today. Playing white side of the Sicilian Defence, he allowed Javad to dominate the proceedings and soon the Armenian was a couple of pawns ahead. However, the Grandmaster from Calcutta continued playing for a win by employing risky
moves. His gamble paid off as Javad overlooked a crafty trap from Barua and was checkmated after a pretty queen sacrifice from the Grandmaster.
In a fast paced game of attack and counterattack, Zhu Chen (4) repulsed Prasad's apparently dangerous attack in Sicilian Najdort Defence. Zhu saw through all of Prasad's tactics and won the game with a powerful counterattack of her own on the white king. IM Lanka Ravi (3) scored the best victory from the Indian side. Playing aggressively against Vinicious Marques' (2) Queens Indian Defence, Ravi maintained his stranglehold throughout the middle game and finished the game with a brilliant win.
Woman GM norm holder S Vijayalaxmi (2) employed English opening against GM Gildardo Garcia (3) of Colombia but the seasoned GM had no difficulty in repulsing Viji's queenside play and scoring an easy win. Anupama Gokhale (2) got into difficulties against IM Piankov's Colle system and could not recover.
WGM Wang Lei (2.5) of China won a piece in Slav opening adopted by
Sajandas Joshi (1.5) and scored a comfortable win in the end game. IM Sekhar Sahu (2) scored an easy win over Manual Sierra (1) of Spain.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
