Kunte let off the hook

PUNE, Aug 26: Double Grandmaster norm holder Abhijit Kunte of India escaped with a lucky draw against GM Van Dan Doel Eric on a day when ...

PUNE, Aug 26: Double Grandmaster norm holder Abhijit Kunte of India escaped with a lucky draw against GM Van Dan Doel Eric on a day when all the top five boards witnessed draws in the fifth round of the Mind Sports Olympiad Masters Chess championship at Kinsington, London today.

According to the reports reaching here, Abhijit (Elo 2465), playing with white pieces, miscalculated in the opening with 11th move (Bg5) in the Closed Ruy Lopez System opening. This helped GM Eric (Elo 2528) gain the double bishop advantage. However, black tried hurrying up and gave an exchange sacrifice, which ultimately helped Abhijit’s cause. Abhijit thereafter played a good move (Re3) to stop the immediate mating threats and forced a perpetual draw in 36 moves.

Abhijit,along with four others including Eric and V Sarvanan of India, is trailing the four joint leaders by half a point, having 3.5 points.

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IM Sarvanan won against C Dunworth (Elo 2308) in Benoni Defence from black side. Sarvanan played against the double pawns of white on f’ file and capitalised well on the opponents bad bishop on white square. Dunworth fell into a trap and lost the Queen for rook and bishop and resigned after 48 moves in hopeless position.

Meanwhile, another Indian Koneru Humpy was a pawn up against the Bangladesh IM Reefat B Sattar (Elo 2377), when the last reports came in. Starting with the English Opening, Humpy played well in the middle-game to win a pawn. Reefat was in trouble defending his point in the opposite colour bishop ending.

On the top board, Phsakis (4) and Smirin (4) agreed for a quick draw in the Slav Defence, while Ibragimov (4) and Speelman (4) signed the peace treaty on the second board in an irregular opening.

Important Results (Round V): Phsakhis (Elo 2581) 4 drew with Smirin I (Elo 2671) 4; Ibragimov (Elo 2554) 4 drew with Speelman (Elo 2597) 4; Baburin A (Elo 2593) 4 drew with Golod V (Elo 2568) 4; Rehman Zia (Elo 2461) 3.5 drew with Lalich B (Elo 2550) 3.5; Kunte A (Elo 2465) 3.5 drew with Van Dan Doel Eric (Elo 2528) 3.5.