Barua goes down to Rahman

Barua goes down to Rahman
United News Of India

Kolkata, February 15: International Master Zia-ur-Rahman of Bangladesh secured his second Grandmaster norm by defeating Indian Grandmaster Dibyendu Barua in the tenth and penultimate round of the 12th Goodricke International Open chess tournament.

Grandmaster Alexei Kharlov of Russia justified his top billing and shot into sole lead with a comprehensive victory over Grandmaster Dimitri Reinderman of The Netherlands. Kharlov has 7.5 points in his kitty and is followed by a wolf pack of six players GM Maxim Sorokin of Argentina, GM Joseph Gallagher of Switzerland, GM Evgeny Vladimirov of Kazakhistan, Zia-ur, IM Sandipan Chanda and IM Ghaem Meghami Ehsan of Iran.

Playing white, Zia went for a positional bind and opted for the Catalan Opening that netted him a miniscule advantage. The queens were traded in the early middlegame and Barua made a positional error by squandering the bishop pair.

In the first time control the pieces got exchanged in a tandem and the players arrived at a double bishop versus bishop and knights endgame wherein Zia’s advantage became indisputable. Barua tried his best for counterplay but it was not his day.

Kharlov played the sicilian defense and got an easy equality against Reinderman. The disadvantage of playing half point down had a telling effect on Reinderman and he slowly fell under pressure while trying to hunt for winning chances. On the 25th move Kharlov set a positional sortie to trap Reinderman’s piece. The game lasted 28 moves.

Vladimirov got the better of IM RB Ramesh in a Kings Indian defense game with white pieces. Ramesh blitzed the opening moves of Kings Indian defense but had to cope with a better prepared opponent. Vladimirov got a slight advantage in the ensuring middlegame and Ramesh succumbed to the pressure and blundered a piece on the 25th move to resign immediately.