5 Indians wins

SCARBOROUGH: Grandmaster Pravin Thipsay led the charge on the opening day of the Smith and Williamson British Open Chess Championships wh...

SCARBOROUGH: Grandmaster Pravin Thipsay led the charge on the opening day of the Smith and Williamson British Open Chess Championships which saw five Indians scoring impressive wins even as National champion Krishnan Sasikiran suffered a setback here.

GM Thipsay, junior National champion Sundararajan Kidambi, Abhijit Kunte, Bhagyashree Thipsay, V Saravanan all won their respective games to be joint leaders after the first round at the Spa Complex in the seaside town of Scarborough in northeastern England yesterday.

IM Sasikiran suffered a setback in his quest for a gm norm when he lost to IWM Jovanka Houska of England. Houska was a member of English women team at 1998 Elista Chess Olympiad.

Playing with white pieces, Sasikiran faced the Slav defence from Houska, and allowed black to form a pawn-chain on the centre squares.

Sasikiran undertook to break black8217;s pawn structure by playing f2-f3, which allowed g-file to be open leaving the white8217;s kingside weak. In the ensuing battle, Houska won an exchange and wrapped up the endgame.

Seven Indian players, who participated in the Biel International Open in Switzerland were joined by latest IWM Koneru Humpy and Bhagyashree Thipsay on the second leg of the European tour.

The British Championship, the flagship event of the two-week long festival, got under way with 15 GMs, 20 IMs, a WGM and four IWMs among a total of 100 participants.

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World under-12 girls8217; champion Koneru Humpy lost her first round game to highly-rated IM Mathew Turner of England.

Thipsay showed excellent endgame technique against Graham Lilley, a blind player from England.

Playing with black pieces, Thipsay adopted Neo-Grunfeld set-up and created a passer on the a file, which decided the game in his favour.

Double-GM norm holder Kunte thrashed Andrew Greet, Saravanan beat Neil Berry, Bhagyashree Thipsay prevailed over Lim Chin Lee while Kidambi defeated Edmund Player.

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IWM Anupama Gokhale was held to a draw by IM Nicholas Pert of England. Pert is a highly rated 8212; elo 2425 8212; player.

Other GMs who won their first round games included J Hodgson, A Baburin, J Emms, S Conquest, B Lalic, and M Hebden.

Important 1st round results:

Julian Hodgson 1 bt Haslinger 0; McFarlan 0 lost to Alexander Baburin 1; John Emms 1 bt Devereaux 0; Martin Simons 0 lost to Stuart Conquest 1; K Sasikiran 0 lost to Jovanka Houska 1; Graham Lilley 0 lost to Pravin Thipsay 1; Abhijit Kunte 1 bt Andrew Greet 0; Koneru Humpy 0 lost to Mathew Turner 1; Nicholas Pert .5 drew with Anupama Gokhale 0.5; V Saravanan 1 bt Neil Berry 0; Lim Chin Lee 0 lost to Bhagyashree Thipsay 1; S Kidambi 1 bt Edmund Player 0.