Boardroom battle

After winning the first match 2.5-1.5 on Sunday, India were again in a dominant position during the second match of the series at the Russian centre for Science and Culture. Reigning under-16 world champion B Adhiban stretched his winning run for the second day running, making short work of GM Avetik Grigoryan and giving India an early lead.

On the second board, GM Arun Prasad was also completely in control of his game. Prasad took charge of the game early on and toyed with Hrant Melkumyan from a strong position before completing the formalities to ensure full points for India.

However, a rare oversight by current world junior champion Abhijeet Gupta against former world junior champion Zaven Andriasian cost him dearly as the latter took full points to reduce the margin for Armenia.

The game was evenly poised and Gupta could have escaped with an easy draw but he missed a simple tactic that left him powerless. Andriasian began with a Slav defence opening, and once the game entered the middle stages, his position was strong enough to command respect.

Abhijeet could still have managed to split points had he been careful enough and stuck to a basic gameplan, but in trying to go for wild complexities, he missed out a chance for counter play and paid the price.

Deep Sengupta, meanwhile, lost from a position of strength to lose the lead and give the Armenians the breathing space that they desperately needed.

Sengupta was in control after a positional exchange sacrifice against Samvel Ter Sahakyan but could not keep his pieces together. Sahakyan waited patiently and was rewarded when Deep8217;s strategy of exchanging pieces did not work well and the Indian called it quits.

Earlier in the day, Adhiban showed the way in his victory over Grigoryan with white-pieces. It was a Ruy Lopez by the Armenian that gave Adhiban an advantage in the middle game as Grigoryan8217;s disconfort with the system was evident. Adhiban cashed in on his chances and sacrificed a rook in the middle game to rip open black8217;s king side and cruised home after Grigoryan failed to spot the right defence. The game was over just 31 moves.

On the other hand, Arun Prasad, playing with black, did feel some pressure in the middle game but managed to keep his calm and delivered the goods when the opportunity arose against Melkumyan.

He employed the Semi Slav defence that led to some initial problems but the Indian managed to hold fort till he managed to lure Melkumyan into an illusive attack with a rook sacrifice. Finding the right defence, Arun capitalised on his material advantage to score the equaliser for India.

India are still 1-0 lead in the three match series and the visitors will be under pressure to score the equaliser in the final match on Tuesday. India will again be playing with white pieces on the top board.