Knights fork three Indian masters

GM Maxim Soroken of Argentina DV Prasad and Sandipan Chanda both of India, are trailing with two and half points. Chief arbiter Ummer Koya got the message from GM Yurtaev that he missed the flight which is operating once a week to Delhi. However, Koya confirmed that GM Urataev8217;s last minute withdrawal will not affect the title requirements of the participants as it requires just three GMs from three federations, including the host, to produce title norms.

Vladimorov 8212; Viji8217;s game in Queens gambit declined variation was an absorbing affair. Viji8217;s early 58230; h6 pawn move was a mistake and Vladimirov pair of knights came in action in a spectacular way, hopping around and penetrated to c8 and c7 with crushing effect.

Viji tried some stunts by giving away a piece but of no avail as Vladimirov did not allow any counter play for the lost piece and won force fully in 26 moves. The strange part of the game was that Vladimorov played only four moves of the pawns and 10 moves of the knights in 26 moves.

Russian GM Lonov 8211; GM Abhijit Kunte8217;s game in Gogo-Indian defence was equal. However, Lonov played a tactical shot by offering his knight, but Kunte8217;s counter blow was amazing as Lonov8217;s knight was on take. Anticipating heavy loss of material, Lonov resigned on the 18th move. Most of the spectators thought that the game had ended in a draw, but were shocked to know the result.

IM Surya Shekhar Ganguly played an exciting game with seasoned IM DV Prasad by a theoretical bishop sacrifice in the Pelicon variation of Sicilian defence. For most of the time Prasad8217;s king was on the run for shelter on queens side at one stage prasad had to give up his rook for the menacing knight who got penetrated to the 7th and 8th rank. Once Prasad8217;s bishops came into action, Ganguly tried for perpetual checks. By careful play, despite short of time, Prasad averted any mishap and won after 42 moves.

Wipro Hari Krishna8217;s encounter with Sandipan Chanda was very tough and well fought in Queen8217;s Indian defence. Harikrishna obtained a crushing position in the opening as he put pressure on backward d8217; pawn which he ultimately won. When the position got simplified to a rook and pawn ending, Hari had a b8217; passer on move.

Sandipan showed his class in defence and salvaged a draw from a difficult position. In his earlier games, Harikrishna missed chances against two GMs.

GM Sorokin and Aarthie Ramaswamy8217;s game in Sicilian Paulsen was a one-sided affair. Aarthie wasted four moves to exchange her knight and also allowed Sorokin to control the centre with advanced pawns. When Sorokin8217;s knight came to b68242; squire, all was over in just 24 moves and Aarthie was losing minimum in the exchange, so she gave up. Incidentally in all the decisive games of the day, knight forks, by the Grand Masters proved fatal and won the games for them.

Results Round four: E Vladimorov 3 beat S Vijayalakshmi 1; Sergey Lonov 1 lost to Abhijit Kunte 1.5; SS Ganguly 1 lost to DV Prasad 2.5; Maxim Sorokin 2.5 beat Aarthie Ramaswamy 2.5; Harikrishna 1.5 drew with Sandipan Chanda 2.5