Ganguly in sight of IM norm

CALCUTTA, Feb 15: Grandmaster Alexander Nenashev of Uzbekistan shot into sole lead with a hard-earned win over GM A Berelovich of Ukraine in...

CALCUTTA, Feb 15: Grandmaster Alexander Nenashev of Uzbekistan shot into sole lead with a hard-earned win over GM A Berelovich of Ukraine in the tenth and penultimate round of the 9th Goodricke International Open Chess Tournament here today.

Top seed, GM Nigel Short, of England retained his joint second position with a fluent victory over Ranola Yves of Phillipines. Short now has seven points along with compatriot GM Speelmam, GM Jaan Ehlvest of Estonia and GM Yurtaev Leonid of Uzbekistan.

Playing with the white pieces today, Nenashev faced the Nimzo Indian Defence and pressed his minute opening advantage in the endgame. With accurate technique he rolled his pawns on the greenside to win a piece and retreated his king and knight just in time to defend his king side pawns. Unable to defend Nenashev’s pawns from queuing Berelovich resigned. Neneshev performance has been excellent in the tournament so far and should he win it tomorrow it would be a record of sorts as he had to concede a half point bye in thefirst round owing to delay in his flight.

Speelman defeated GM norm aspirant Ziaur Rahman of Bangladesh in a well played endgame, arising out of an English Defence, with black pieces. Zia shattered his pawn structure voluntarily to retain some winning chances after queens got traded early in the opening. Speelman grabbed a couple of pawns before entering a won rook and pawn endgame.

GM Nigel Short showed why he is hailed so much the world over. In an irregular set up Short simply pushed all queenside pawns with black pieces to register his fourth win of the tournament.

GM Dibyendu Barua tried hard to get through the defences of Yurtaev in a Bishops Opening but finally had to settle for a draw. Barua too has 6.5 points.

IM norm aspirant SS Ganguly (6) was impressive today as he scored over GM Jonathan Levitt of England in a Kings Indian attack game with white pieces. Ganguly needs a win tomorrow to secure his maiden IM norm.