Ubeda (Spain), January 25: International Master Sandipan Chanda went down gallantly to GM Alexander Fominyh of Russia in the fourth round of the Ciudad-de-Ubeda international open chess tournament here.Against Fominyh’s Taimanov variation of Sicilian, Chanda played energitcally and sacrificed an exchange for the dark squared bishop on his 18th move. With his King dragged into the open, the GM decided to give up a rook for a pawn to draw the game through perpetual checks. However,Chanda declined the offer and continued to play for a win in a complicated position. Facing good resistance from black, he sadly blundered another pawn to hand over the advantage to black and lost after 59 moves. Sriram Jha held GM Vera to a draw in a marathon battle lasting 70 moves. After equalising the game soon after the opening, the GM slowly increased his advantage by the time the game reached a knight ending. Jha escaped when Vera committed a major error and allowed white’s King and knight to catch black’s central pawn in time on the seventh rank thereby clinching a valuable half a point. K Visweswaran lost to IM Arizmendi Martinez from the white side of the Sicilian Defence in 20 moves. DK Sharma and CS Gokhale lost their games to their higher rated rivals IM V Meijurs of Latvia and GM Khamrakulov respectively. While Sharma lost in 40 moves from Queens Gambit Declined, Gokhale’s lost in his favourite Petroff Defence in 43 moves. IM RB Ramesh missed many winning chances before drawing his game against IWM Sidorova from the black side of the Bogo Indian Defence. IWM Aarthie was the only Indian to win today. She beat Mora Manez of Spain in 25 moves using English attack against Sicilian Scheveningen. Important ResultsS Chanda (2.5) lost to A Fominyh (3.5), Sriram Jha (2) drew with R Vera (2), Visweswaran (2) lost to A Martinez (3), DK Sharma (2) lost to V Meijers (3), Khamrakulov (2.5) bt CS Gokhale (1.5), L Dominguez (2) drew with Rahul Shetty (2), E Sidorova (1.5) drew with RB Ramesh (1.5), R Aarthie (1.5) bt J Mora Manez (0.5).
