Indians have a good day

LINARES, JAN 9: Two Grandmaster norm holder Abhijit Kunte excelled as the Indians started on a promising note with six of them claiming f...

LINARES, JAN 9: Two Grandmaster norm holder Abhijit Kunte excelled as the Indians started on a promising note with six of them claiming full point from the opening round of the prestigious Linares Open chess tournament here.Besides Kunte, IM K Sasikiran, former national champions DV Prasad and P Konguvel, RB Ramesh and V Saravanan also scored easy wins, against lowly rated opponents in the annual event which has attracted 22 GMs, 45 IMs and seven Fide Masters (FM) among a strong field of 132.

Kunte, looking for his final norm to claim the coveted GM title, crushed his opponent Fernandes in just 32 moves of a Sicilian Alapin game after Prasad had set the tone by beating Joseph Gallardo in just one and half hours.

Another GM title aspirant Sasikiran, however, got into trouble against compatriot Mrunalini Kunte but escaped with a win as Mrunalini mishandled the position under time pressure and lost a piece and the game.

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Among the other Indians, Konguvel beat Manzenda, Ramesh defeated G Castilla andSaravanan thrashed Carruana FP, national women’s champion S Vijayalaxmi lost to GM V Bologon, Pallavi Shah was beaten by G Baguturov while CS Gokhale went down to FG Carruana.

Important results: GM Alexi Dreev (Rus) bt K Mork (Nor), GM Sergei Tiviakov (Rus) drew with Saldano Haracio (Arg), A Betaneli (US) lost to GM A Minasian (Arm), S Vijayalaxmi (Ind) lost to GM K Asarin (Arm), CS Gokhale (Ind) lost to GM V Bologan (Maldova), V Saravanan (Ind) bt FA Carruana, J Gallardo lost to DV Prasad (Ind), GM G Giorgdze (Geo) drew with K Bjerring (Den), GM O Ronaishi (Ukr) bt K Novro (Fin), G Baguturov bt Pallavi Shah (Ind).

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