Chess — Andrey draws with Ildar, still in lead

Alexander Fominyh of Russia and Barua were half a point adrift of the leader at the end of the sixth round at Chalapathi Residential School onSaturday.

There were only two decisive games on Saturday. Leonid Yurtaev of Kyrgysztan showed his strong point — tactics when GB Prakash (India) underestimated his opponents chance by clinging to the extra pawn when it was necessary to give back the pawn to lose his second game. Venkatachalam Saravanan of India, who has been having an up and down tournament, bounced back in style, defeating Ziaur Rahman (Bangladesh), who went for a wrong plan to lose.

Former World under-12 champion Koneru Humpy continued her reasonable showing here, with a draw against GM-elect Abhijit Kunte (India), who after winning a pawn on the 23rd move, was unable to preventthe youngster from neutralising. She got the pawn back on the 26th move to force a draw in an equal rook and pawn ending.

Alexander Fominyh’s good understanding and risk-free chess makes him a difficult opponent to beat. Krishnan Sasikiran of India found it out after deploying the King’s Indian Defence and could not get more thanhalf a point.

The most interesting game of the day was between Prasad and Sandipan Chanda. Prasad seemed to have a nagging edge in the middle-game from a Sicilian Scheveningen. However, Chanda, like he had done earlier in the tournament, raised his level when it is required most, creating obstacles and making his opponent earn a point. Prasad’s advantage vanishedsoon as the game ended in draw when Chanda put perpetual checks.

Prakash, who had a draw in hand against Yurtaev after equalising, got optimistic not realising the power of queen and rook combination against an exposed King. His 44th move Kg7 was the decisive mistake (44 Rg8 draws).

Yurtaev’s conduct of the game after that was praiseworthy. He demonstrated the power of queen and rook which was quite instructive. Prakash quit on the 54th move faced with unavoidable mate.

Zia got into trouble with an uncharacteristic (16 e5) in the Sicilian Taimanov variation against Saravanan, who got hold off the position, controlling the light squares. In a slightly awkward position, Zia erredwith 38 e4 (38 Bf4 was better) when Saravanan’s pieces were on target to fire. Finally, he blundered on the 41st move overlooking Saravanan’s matingthreat and captured his Queen.

Results (6th round): Yurtaev (Rus) 3 bt GB Prakash (Ind) 2, V Saravanan (Ind) 3 bt Ziaur Rahman (Ban) 1.5, A Fominyh (Rus) 4 drew K Sasikiran (Ind) 3.5, I Ibragimov (Rus) 3.5 drew A Shariyazdanov (Rus) 4.5, DV Prasad (Ind) 2.5 drew Sandipan Chanda (Ind) 3.5, D Barua (Ind) 4 drew PM Thipsay (Ind) 2, Abhijit Kunte (Ind) 2.5 drew K Humpy (Ind) 1.5.

Seventh Round Pairings: Humpy vs Yurtaev, Thipsay vs Abhijit Kunte, Sandipan Chanda vs Barua, Shariyazdanov vs Prasad, Sasikiran vs Ibragimov, Ziaur Rahman vs Fominyh, Prakash vs Saravanan.