AMSTERDAM, AUGUST 19: International Master RB Ramesh returned to winning ways after a devastating sixth round against Russian GM Tregubov when he beat Dutchman Hendriks in the Lost Boys International Open chess tournament, but his chances for the GM norm, though alive, have gone to the wire.Facing Pric defence of Hendriks, Ramesh obtained a solid advantage from the beginning on the queenside. He executed a tricky move gaining a double bishop advantage and won a pawn.Then he missed a simple win and complicated the task giving lot of counterplay to Hendriks. In a rook and bishop versus rook and knight ending Ramesh won the game in 64 moves to take his tally to five points.Ramesh meets GM Nijboer with white pieces in the penultimate round and needs 1.5 points to make the elusive GM norm from the two rounds.Grandmaster Mikhail Gurevich took the sole lead with six points at the end of the seventh round.Gurevich showed great understanding of the black side of the French defence Classical variation to outplay Nijboer of The Netherlands. He sacrificed an exchange for two pawns and won the game in 40 moves and led the table with half a point.Also following in the footsteps of Ramesh, former junior National champion S Kidambi scored a crushing victory over unrated Hoevens of The Netherlands.Playing the Gligoric variation from the White side against the Kings-Indian defence, Kidambi got space advantage in the center. He then won an exchange and gradually outplayed his opponent to take his tally to four points. All the other Indians, however, lost in contrast to beginners.TS Ravi was clearly better for most of the game against Van der Werf with white pieces and the center-counter opening.Ravi played aggressively on the kingside and pushed back Werf's pieces to passive positions. He then went on to win a pawn on the queenside with a clever knight manouvre.From here on Ravi (4) got into his by now routine time pressure and spoiled the position to lose a pawn himself in a rook and minor pieces ending and with it the game in 70 moves.IM V Saravanan (3.5) couldn't solve the opening problems succesfully against unrated Nep of The Netherlands from the black side of the Kings-Indian defence.Nep won a pawn in the early middle-game and Saravanan had to give a piece to contain white's pawn from promoting on the queenside. Nep won the tricky ending by playing correct moves.IM P Konguvel mixed up the move order from the white side of the Sicilian Sozin attack against Blokhuis of Holland.Realising his mistake Konguvel immediately tried to make amends by offering a piece for an attack. But Blokhuis defended the resultant position well to leave Konguvel without much compensation for the piece and was forced to give up in 33 moves to stay on three points.Important Results (Round six): GM Nijboer (5) lost to GM MGurevich(6); GM I Sokolov (5.5) drew with GM Tregubov (5.5); GM Piket (5.5) beat GM Van der Wiel (4.5); GM Milov (5.5) beat Peek (4.5); IM R B Ramesh (5) beat IM Hendriks (4); Kidambi (4) beat Hoeven (3); Nep (4.5) beat IM Saravanan (3.5); TS Ravi (4) lost to Van der Verf (5); IM Konguvel (3) lost to Blokhuis (4).
