Ramesh's GM norm hopes suffer setback

Ramesh's GM norm hopes suffer setback
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

ANDORRA, JULY 2: International Master RB Ramesh suffered a painful loss in his quest for a Grandmaster norm losing the crucial battle to Alfredo Giaccio while V Saravanan held GM Al-Modiahki to a draw in the 8th and penultimate round of the Andorra International Open Chess tournament.

GMs Lev Psakhis and Mihail Marin continued to lead the table with 6.5 points each after the two had contrasting draws in the top two games of the day, which allowed Moroccon GM Hichem Hamdouchi to join them with a creditable win over Ion Cosma here on Sunday.

Vedant Goswami, the third Indian in the fray, easily outplayed unrated Abad Gomez to move on to 4.5 points.

Before the round had started, the chief arbiter of the tournament had informed Ramesh that his target was 1.5 points from the last two rounds to make a GM norm.

Ramesh was pumped up as he embarked on his favourite classical variation of the Sicilian defence with black pieces against the highly rated Giaccio (Elo 2508) of Argentina.

White chose the sharp Sozin Attack which resulted in a sharp and tactical middlegame. Ramesh sacrificed a pawn to gain the advantage of the bishop pair in an open position, but was forced to exchange the queens in the process.

The resultant rook and minor pieces was drawish, but Ramesh continued playing risky by taking his king far into the open, and paid the price when he was forced to part with a piece and the match.

Saravanan played the 6th seeded Qatari Al-Modiahki (Elo 2538) with black pieces, and was faced with the offbeat variation of the Sicilian defence -- 1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 Nc6 3.f4.

The middlegame phase appeared slow, but Saravanan seized the initiative by keeping his bishops on the long diagonals and opening up the `f' file and had an upperhand.

However, Modiahki found a resourceful way to generate counterplay and exchanged all the pawns on the queenside. He further exchanged black's dangerous light squared bishop and offered a draw on the 26th move, which the Indian accepted.

Vedant took a leaf out of his defeat to Kogan in the 7th round and played the same Vienna opening, this time with white pieces, against Gomez of Andorra.

He gained a advantage in the middlegame due to his passed pawn on the `d' file. He simplified the position to transpose it into a rook and pawn ending and won easily in 59 moves.

While Psakhis enjoyed another day of rest by agreeing for a short draw with IM Vladimir Georgiev of Bulgaria on the top board, Marin was forced to sweat it out against veteran GM Daniel Campora of Argentina on the second board.

Campora had the initiative on the kingside but Marin warded off all the threats and forced a draw, thus postponing the fight for the title to a photo finish in the last round, which will be decided between him, Psakhis and Hamdouchi.

Important Results (Round eight): IM Giaccio (6) bt IM Ramesh (5.5), GM Al-Modiahki (5) drew IM Saravanan (5), Goswami (4.5) bt Abad Gomez (3.5), IM Georgiev (6) drew GM Psakhis (6.5), GM Marin (6.5) drew GM Campora (6), IM Cosma (5.5) lost to GM Hamdouchi (6.5), IM Mateo (5) lost to GM Kuzmin (6), IM Dublan (5.5) drew IM Velicka (5.5), GM Lalic (5.5) bt Reinaldo (5), IM Tyomkin (4.5) lost to GM Westerinen (5.5).