Chanda chases off Vijayalakshmi in marathon

Chanda chases off Vijayalakshmi in marathon
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

HYDERABAD, July 17: Bengal's young sensation, Sandipan Chanda became the sole leader with two points after the second round of the Wipro International Grandmasters chess tournament here on Tuesday.

Chanda won a marathon 61-move game against National women's champion S Vijayalakshmi while the other games ended in draws after tough fights.

In a Ruy Lopez double-edged variation, Vijayalakshmi played a thrilling 3...Bc5 variation much to the surprise of Chanda.

In the middle game skirmishes, Chanda won a pawn on the kingside and nursed the same to victory in the ensuing bishop and pawn ending.

Though Vijayalakshmi tried her best to wriggle out of the mess, Chanda played a flawless endgame. He gave away his bishop and advanced his king and three pawns to victory. Vijayalakshmi's lone centre pawn was one step away from queening but her king was cornered.

Grandmaster Leonid Yurtaev of Kyrgyzstan will be arriving tonight, so his game with top seed E Valdimirov of Kazakhstan was postponed. The game between GM Maxim Sorokin and GM Sergey Ionov in the Reti opening was full of complications. They consumed more than an hour in making the first 14 moves and, after four more moves, agreed to split the point.

Wipro-sponsored P Harikrishna and Russian GM Alexander Fominyh too played a tough and complicated game in the Queen's gambit accepted variation.

Some imaginative play by Harikrishna in the middlegame saw the Russian GM in a fix. However, the experienced GM lured Harikrishna into an exchange and managed a draw.

As in his first game, against GM Sorokin, Harikrishna missed defeating the Russian GM by a whisker.

K Sasikiran employed the King's Indian attack against Abhijit Kunte and got the upper hand. But Kunte managed to hold his own with some careful defensive moves. A potentially dangerous position was created after 25 moves, but neither player wanted to take any risk and they agreed to share the point.

Wipro's Aarthie Ramaswamy and seasoned IM DV Prasad agreed to a draw in a Ruy Lopez closed variation game in which no piece or pawn was exchanged till the 31st move. Prasad avoided some risky lines before deciding to split the point.

Results (Round two): Maxim Sorokin 1 drew with Sergey Lonov 0.5; P Harikrishna 1 drew with Alexander Fomiyh 1; Sandipan Chanda 2 beat S Vijayalakshmi 1; K Sasikiran 1.5, drew with Abhijit Kunte 0.5; Aarthie Ramaswamy 0.5 drew with DV Prasad 1; Leonid Yurtaev-E Vladimirov 1 match postponed, SS Ganguly 1 bye.