TEHERAN, Aug 18: Indian Grandmaster Pravin Thipsay ended his jinx here recording a fluent win over Jordan's S Mansour (2280) in the third round of the Asian Men's Chess Championship last night.Young GM Rustam Kasimdzhanov (Uzbekistan) emerged as the sole leader with three points when he outwitted GM elect Al-Modiahki of Qatar on the top board.India's Dibyendu Barua and top seed Vietnamese GM Dao Thien Hai were close behind with 2.5 points.Barua closed in on the leader with a 58-move positional victory over K Aliev (2385) of Turkmenistan.Seeking a GM norm here, Bharat Petroleum's V Saravanan continued his good run holding Uzbek GM Sergey Zagrebelny (2480) to a draw in 40 moves.Zagrebelny with white pieces adopted the quiet Bez system against Saravanan's Sicilian Najdorf, and the game transposed into the likes of the Dragon variation.Saravanan held a slight advantage in the middlegame when the players went into mutual time pressure but made some inaccuracies and agreed to a draw.Barua playedhis pet Slav defence against Aliev and achieved easy equality with black pieces. He slowly outplayed his opponent in the middlegame and was two pawns up going into the endgame. With precise technique, he converted his advantage in 58 moves.Thipsay demonstrated his deep understanding of the Ruy Lopez when he saddled his opponent with problems all over the board. He won a piece and the game in early middlegame.RESULTSGM Rustam Kasimdzhanov (3) bt IM Al-Modiahki (2), GM Dao Thien Hai (2.5) bt M Ghorbani (2), K Aliev (1.5) lost to GM D Barua (2.5), GM S Zagrebelny (2) drew V Saravanan (2), GM M Saltaev (2) bt Sh Ghane (1), Amir Bagheri (1) lost to IM S Khamdamov (2), GM P Thipsay (1) bt S Mansour (0).Sasi on course for a GM normHAMPSTEAD: Krishnan Sasikiran (India) took a step towards clinching a Grandmaster norm by scoring a facile win over Jim Plaskett in the seventh round of the Hampstead International Grandmasters' Chess Tournament, here, today.Sasikiran, who needs 11.5 pointsin the 15-round championship for the norm, took his tally to 5 points by defeating overnight joint leader Plaskett (2455) in 41 moves.The Indian (2470) opted for Nimzo Indian variation and dominated throughout the game, forcing his opponent to resign once the time control was over.Tiger Hillarp Persson, playing with black, beat Ray Kaufmann to jump to the lead with 5.5 points.India also tasted victory in the International Master tournament being held alongside the GMs' meet as Arpi Shah defeated a higher ranked Thomas Bree in the seventh round.Shah won in 54 moves with an unorthodox opening to register her second win of the championship.She, however, is in the lower half of the standings with only two points in her kitty.
