Bakre champion

Bakre has a one point lead over Khamrukalon Ibrahi of UZB and Amir Mallahi of Iran.

In the penultimate round, Bakre faced the centre counter opening from Annaberdiev B of Turkmenistan. Amaberdvev gave an interesting pawn sacrifice on the 10th move to temporarily strangle Bakre8217;s king in the centre.

Bakre gave a rook, to take his king to safely on the queenside, which could not be taken. By threatening mate, Bakre exchanged the queens and transposed to a won endgame which he won in 32 moves.

R Karthik came back with a great sacrificial victory over Mas Hafizulhilmi of Malaysia. In a modern opening, Karthik got space advantage on both the blanks with the centre closed and started an attack over Mas8217;s king. In time trouble, Karthik gave three pawnsand an exchange to get Mas8217; queen. Mas resigned on the 46th more. In the girls section, Nguyen T Vietnam and S Vijayalakshmi combined their winning spree to take their tally to eight points. With one round to go, Vijayalakshmi is assured of the silver medal. Ngvyen8217;s tie-break is marginally better then the Indian8217;s.

This has been a good performance for Vijayalakshmi who has good chances for winning the title and complete her Woman Grandmaster title.