Kunte’s win helps India hold Kazakhs

Faced with a hard task of countering Kazakh Grandmasters on all four boards today, double GM-norm holder Abhijit Kunte scored the first point for India by upsetting highly rated GM Pavel Kostur.

Kunte employed his favourite Paulsen variation and played imaginatively by rolling his K-side pawns keeping the king in the centre. He continued brilliantly by sacrificing a pawn and then a piece later to shatter his opponent’s king side.

Kostur was unable to parry the tactical threats of his young opponent and had to give up a piece to avoid getting mated and soon gave up the struggle as the Indian youngster finished with a splendid performance.

National `A’ champion K Sasikiran held GM Evgeny Vladimirov on the top board after ahair-raising battle in Queen’s gambit accepted.

Vladimirov sacrificed a pawn to create counter play and Sasikiran came under heavy time scramble.

Sasikiran, who last month won the Asian junior title in Vungtau City (Vietman), found the correct defence resource and held his forte.

Former National champion DV Prasad held the highly-rated GM Murtas Kazhagaleyev to a draw on the third board. The Kazakh chose the centre counter for which Prasad answered with an interesting pawn gambit.

But Kazhagaleyev came out with a novelty and obtained a slight advantage and the game ultimately petered out into a draw following a thrilling rook ending.

GM Ruslan Irzhanov neutralised the score by accounting for GB Prakash on the fourth board.

RESULTS

Men: Philippines bt Indonesia 3-1, Singapore drew with China `A’ 2-2; India drew with Kazakhstan 2-2, Uzbekistan lost to Iran 1.5-2.5.

Standings: 1. Philippines (7 points), 2. Singapore (6), 3. India, Iran, China `A’, Kazakhstan (5.5 each), 4. Indonesia(5), 5. Vietnam (4.5).