Sandipan remains in sole lead; four Indians in joint second

Kolkata: GM Sandipan Chanda let GM Le Quang Liem off the hook to draw on the first board in fifth round of the fourth Kolkata Open Grandmaster Chess tournament at Gorky Sadan here on Saturday.

The local lad, however, maintained his sole lead, even as 10 players, including four Indians, remained half-point adrift chasing down Sandipan. The overnight leader had a better game but made a slight error in the endgame to let his opponent escape.In what could be termed as an upset on the top boards, Indian GM Magesh Chandran Panchanathan won against super GM Gadir Guseinov of Azerbaijan to get into the joint second place. Magesh opened with his queen pawn and soon had a bind on the centre. He then won an exchange and used his passed pawn on the ‘b’ file to win another rook after which it was all over. GM Parimarjan Negi defeated IM Deep Sengupta and is now lurking in the joint second place. In another upset, world U-16 champion IM B Adhiban stunned GM Vadim Malakhatko of Belgium to climb to the joint second spot. IM R R Laxman stunned GM Jan Markos of Slovakia to become the fourth Indian to get into the joint second position with four points apiece. Bureau Report