Humpy beats Eesha; Sandipan draws in Gibtelecom Masters

Gibraltar (Germany): World`s second highest rated woman player Koneru Humpy put it across fellow Indian

Eesha Karavade while Sandipan Chanda was held to a draw by local Michael Hoffmann in the third round of the Gibtelecom Masters chess tournament here. Playing black, Humpy did not get much out of the opening and the middle game saw some routine manoeuvring that led to a balanced position. Eesha, however, missed a tactical trick and ended up losing a piece for no compensation. The Queen`s Gambit game lasted 40 moves. Sandipan played out a draw with Hoffman coming up with an opening Novelty on the 24th move in a Moscow variation game. The new idea was certainly an improvement in the existing theory by Sandipan but it was only enough to equalise as Hoffman proved after exchanges led to a queen and minor piece endgame. Grandmaster G N Gopal was also held to a draw by German Tobias Hirneise. The Kerala-based player conceded his first half point in the tournament with black pieces. At the top, Michael Adams of England, Laurent Fressinet of France and Jan Gustafsson of Germany emerged as the joint leaders with a perfect score after three rounds. A pack of 26 players including Humpy, Chanda and Gopal follow the leaders with 2.5 points each with seven rounds remaining in this 96000 Pounds prize money tournament. On the downside, Tania Sachdev suffered her first defeat at the hands of Grandmaster Damian Lemos of Argentina. Tania faced the Semi Slav defense and had things under control when the middle game arrived but an oversight in the later part of the game cost the Indian dearly. International Master Dronavalli Harika put her second round loss against Adams behind and came back strongly to beat Peter Cafolla of Ireland. Kruttika Nadig and V Saravanan also posted victories over Martyn Hamer of England and Andrew Lumsdon of Switzerland respectively to reach two points apiece. PTI