Vishnu Prasanna beats Vorobiov in Negroponte Open Chess

Chalkida: International Master in the making, India`s Vishnu Prasanna crushed Grandmaster Evgeny Vorobiov of Russia in the fifth round of the first Negroponte International Open Chess tournament here.

After beating Grandmaster Stelios Halkias of Greece, this was Prasanna`s second GM scalp in a row and the Indian now stands an excellent chance of making his maiden Grandmaster norm. Prasanna also currently shares the third spot in the tournament along with compatriot, former world junior champion Abhijeet Gupta on 4.5 points each. Zaven Andriasian of Armenia and Suat Atalik of Turkey maintained their all-win record in the tournament and defeated Greek Athanasios Mastrovasilis and American Robert Hess respectively to share the lead on five points each from as many games. Meanwhile, Grandmasters Sandipan Chanda, Surya Shekhar Ganguly, D Harika and M Shyam Sundar were among those who have four points each and share the fifth spot along with 17 others. Prasanna overshadowed the accomplishment of Shyam Sundar, who also had a prize catch in the fifth round in the form of Grandmaster Nidjaz Mamedov of Azerbaijan. Playing the white side of a Sicilian Scheveningen Prasanna proved better armed than his much higher ranked opponent Vorobiov. Once the Russian was caught in a tactical melee he was in for major surprise when Prasanna sacrificed his Bishop to sweep all but one black pawn from the board. With his queen doing the most of the damage, Prasanna had not troubles in getting the full point in 40 moves. Shyam Sundar won with black against Mamedov. It was a French defence game wherein Mamedov opted for the Tarrasch variation and was caught in a thematic exchange sacrifice. Shyam slowly worked with his initiative and squeezed in the full point when Mamedov erred further and lost his extra material. Abhijeet also scored a fine victory over Inga Charkhalashvili of Georgia who played the black side of a Catalan opening. Abhijeet got a slight advantage out of the opening and it was a clinical display that helped him add to his overnight score. Among other Indians in the fray, Harika defeated local hopeful Kleanthis Vafiathis while Tania Sachdev, Sahaj Grover and Vaibhav Suri also ended on the winning side. Soumya Swaminathan, the 2009 world junior girls` champion lost to GM Elshan Moradiabadi of Iran and Grandmaster Deepan Chakkravarthy was held to a draw by Greek Sotirios Malikentzos. Karma Pandya misplayed a better position and signed peace deal with International Master Angela Borsuk of Israel. PTI