Ubeda (Spain), January 28: After a meek submission inthe previous round, International Master Sandipan Chanda fumbled again as he struggled to hold Grandmaster Bogdan Lalic to a draw in the seventh round of the Ubeda International Open Chess tournament Here.While, the draw seriously dented Chanda’s efforts for a second GM norm, most of the other Indians, including R B Ramesh, Dinesh Kumar Sharma, C S Gokhale, K Visveswaran and Aarthie Ramaswamy, scored fluent wins.Chanda, who has performed consistently in the tournament, held Lalic to a draw from the white side of the Sicilian Sveshnikov variation. It was all theory for the major part of the opening and Lalic offered a draw which was initially declined by Chanda. However, Chanda had to be content with draw as his queen could not avoid a repetition of moves. Ramesh won his second consecutive game with an easy victory over IM Hassan Sayed of Egypt from the white side of the French Tarrasch variation. Ramesh sacrificed a pawn initially in the opening which his opponent refused to accept and gave Ranmesh a clear advantage. Hassan managed to initiate a dangerous attack on Ramesh’s king but the latter found the correct defence and entered a winning rook and pawn ending. D K Sharma won against IM Reinaldo Castineira from the black side of the Scotch game. Sharma gave an intersting piece sacrifice with ‘nh2’ which if taken would have given Sharma a draw with perpetual checks. His opponent declined, losing a piece and the game in just 18 moves. C S Gokhale upset higher-rated IM Salmensuu Olli of Finland from the white side of the Reti opening. Gokhale played energetically in the centre and placed all his pieces to passive positions. Gokhale went on to win a piece which helped him win the game soon. IWM Aarthie also registered her second consecutive victory with an upset win over IM Candela Perez of Spain from the black side of the kings Indian Petrosian system. Aarthie aggressively launched an attack on the kingside, which was not clear in the beginning but soon gained momentum and helped her win the board.Visveswaran employed an irregular opening from the white side against Frank of Belgium. Frank played passively and soon gave Visveswaran a huge space advantage. White won two pawns and the game in 36 moves. IM Rahul Shetty and Sriram Jha lost their games against IM Lalib and IM Simonenko respectively. Ubeda Chess: Important resultsSandipan Chanda (4) drew with B Lalic (4); R B Ramesh (4) bt S Hassan (3); Sriram Jha (3) lost to Sergei Simonenko (4); Reinaldo Castineira (3) lost to D K Sharma (4); I Labib (4) bt Rahul Shetty (3); C S Gokhale (3.5) bt Olli Salmensu (2.5); J Chandela Perez (2.5) lost to R Aarthie (3.5); K Visweswaran (3) bt A Frank (2).
