Humpy holds GM Summerscale

Double GM norm holder Abhijit Kunte drew his second successive game and is sharing the second place with three points.

Playing on the sixth board, the Pune-based IM opted for an interesting 10th move Nfd7 in the black side of Queens Indian Defence against United Kingdom8217;s Grandmaster B Lalich Elo 2550, which gave Kunte equality. Both players agreed to split the point after 28 moves when there was no progressof the two rooks, a bishop and pawn in the end game.

IM Sarvanan 2.5 was held to a draw by Reefat B Sattar Bangladesh in the Close Sicilian game. After both players manoeuvred there pieces in the middle-game, Reefat forced exchange of Queens which led to an interesting end game with two rooks, a bishop and a knight.

Reefat defended correctly to force a draw after 50 moves.

The top boards too witnessed draw, as GM Smirin 3.5 held GM Ibragimov 3.5, while GM Goldon 3.5 shared the point with Van Deol 3 on the second board. GM Speelman 3.5, playing on third board, crushed his fellow GM Chris Ward in just 15 moves, after the laters Queen got trapped in the opening game.

Important results: Smirin 3.5 drew with Ibragimov 3.5; Goldon 3.5 drew with Van Doel 3; Speelman 3.5 bt C Ward 2.5