Sasi sets up exciting title chase

Sasi sets up exciting title chase
Srinivasa Raghavan

chennai, august 26: Krishnan Sasikiran of India (8.5 points) moved closer to winning the Pentamedia Grandmaster Chess Tournament with an authoritative victory over second seed Alexander Fominyh of Russia, who was strategically outplayed in the middlegame by his younger opponent in the 12th round. Top seed Evegeny Vladimirov of Kazakhstan, who has looked out of sorts in the last few rounds, found his form and used his favourite weapon (ending) to outwit India's Dibyendu Barua at Kelambakkam, here on Saturday.

Going into the final round with a one point cushion, Sasikiran requires a draw with Yuldachev to make sure of his title. Vladimirov, who is chasing him, will face Devaki Prasad.

Saidali Yuldachev is getting better and better as the event draws to a close. He capitalised on Abhijit Kunte's 42nd move in a slightly favourable position. His technique was good in the Queen and pawn ending.

Sasikiran had a point to prove when he faced Fominyh, who had beaten him from a losing position in the previous tournament against the Indian. The game went along theoretical lines when Fominyh differed with 13 bd6 in the Slav Defence which looked dubious. Sasikiran exchanged Queens and got a powerful centre with the `e' and `f' pawns. Having space advantage, Sasi went a pawn up on the 23rd move and strengthened his position further by pushing his pawn to a6. He finished the game by Queening his `a' passer.

Having to catch a flight back home, Fominyh played out on Saturday last round game, making a short draw over to Harikrishna. Fominyh ended the event with 5.5 points while Harikrishna finished with six points.

GB Prakash, who will be having a bye on Sunday, ended the tournament with a hard-fought draw against Harikrishna from the Slav Defence. When Vladimirov went long castling with Barua, one expected a lively battle. Barua essayed a Queen swap on the 15th move. The Kazakhstani set up the position admirably and executed a knight sacrifice on the 38th move, winning four pawns and getting connected passers in the `a' and `b' files. Results (12th round): Sasikiran (Ind) 8.5 bt Fominyh (Rus) 5, Vladimirov (Kaz) 7.5 bt Barua (Ind) 6.5, Abhijit Kunte (Ind) 5.5 lost to Yuldachev (Uzb) 6, Harikrishna (Ind) 5.5 drew Prakash (Ind) 7, Sandipan Chanda (Ind) 3.5 drew Prasad (Ind) 3.5, Ghaem Maghami Ehsan (Irn) 4.5 bt Reefat bin Sattar (Ban) 5.5, Ganguly (Ind) 3.5 bye Arvind assured of title CHENNAI: CJ Arvind (Chennai) extended his lead to one point and is virtually assured of title, after pursuer J Ramakrishna (Andhra Pradesh) went down to KV Shantharam (Indian Bank) in the 12th round of the ONGC Fide Rated Chess Tournamentat Kelambakkam, here on Saturday.

Arvind, who drew with K Gunasekaran of ICF, has 10 points. Shantharam and Ramakrishna were placed second at nine points. Just half a point behind them were N Sudhakar Babu (IB) and Saheli Dhar Barua (Railways), who scored over R Balasubramanian (ICF) and Devendra Kumar (Tvl).

Results (12th round): CJ Arvind (Che) 10 drew K Gunasekaran (ICF) 8, KV Shantharam (IB) 9 bt J Ramakrishna (AP) 9, N Sudhakar Babu (IB) 8.5 bt R Balasubramanian (ICF) 7.5, Saheli Dhar Barua (Rlys) 8.5 bt Devendra Kumar (Tvl) 7.5, Ebenezer Joseph (P & T Audit) 7.5 drew M Saimeera (IB) 8, R Siddharth (Che) 8 bt Poobesh Anand (Mdu) 7, G Rohit (AP) 7 lost to P Rajesh (Tvl) 8, Ram S Krishnan (Che) 7.5 bt JE Kavitha (Kan) 7, S Raghuraman (Che) 7 drew K Gopalakrishnan (IB) 7, Shyam S Krishnan (Che) 7 drew S Bharath (Che) 7, H Nilavoli (Che) 6.5 lost to RV Venkatakrishnan (Che) 7.5, AH Huque (Ban) 7 bt G Ravindran (Che) 6, SP Pandiakumar (Che) 7 bt KN Ranga (Kan) 6, R Navaneethakrishnan (Kan) 6 lost to S Sujatha (Che) 7, George Daniel (Che) 7 bt R Raghunathan (Che) 6.