Sandipan beats Baadur Jobav, jump into joint lead

Fujairah (UAE): Grandmaster Sandipan Chanda continued with his giant killing spree and stunned top seed Baadur Jobava to jump into joint lead at the end of the sixth round of Fujairah International Open chess tournament here today.

After beating Ni Hua of China in the previous round, Sandipan was in his elements yet again and was a treat to watch after Jobava went berserk with his planning in the game. Sandipan joined four other over night leaders in the lead following draws on top boards. Etienne Bacrot of France signed peace with Sergey Fedorchuk of Ukraine while Surya Shekhar Ganguly achieved the same result against Alexander Moiseenko of Ukraine. With just three rounds remaining in the USD 50500 prize money tournament, all five leaders have 4.5 points each and they are now followed by a group of eight players who are on four points each. The other fancied Indian, Abhijeet Gupta yet again misplayed a better position and had to settle for another draw in the tournament against Jaan Ehlvest of the United States. With just 3.5 points in his bag for a shared 14th place, Gupta needs to find his winning touch before its too late. Apart from Gupta, Tejas Bakre and S Satyapragyan are the other Indians with 3.5 points and in with a chance to catch up in the last few rounds. The GM norm aspirations of V Saravanan suffered a setback after he lost to Constantin Lupulescu of Romania in the sixth round. Sandipan was pleasantly surprised by the way Jobava tried innovative chess with black pieces. Jobava, who is a member of the 2700 rating club for some time now, went for an early King side opening by way of pushing pawns but the bid did not materialise. Sandipan had things under control for the major part of the game and the Indian benefitted by an oversight to reach a winning endgame. He won in 50 moves. Ganguly played solidly with black pieces to hold Moiseenko. For the records, it was a Queen`s gambit accepted by the Indian that gave an easy equality and Moiseenko did not press for more sensing troubles. Gupta had reasons to be upset over another missed chance. It was almost a one-move win that the Indian failed to notice. It was a typical case of chess-blindness when many moves won but Gupta went for something that only equalised in the end. Important and Indian results after round 6 (Indians unless stated): Etienne Bacrot (FRA, 4.5) drew with Sergey Fedorchuk (UKR, 4.5); Alexander Moiseenko (UKR, 4.5) drew with Surya Shekhar Ganguly (4.5); Sandipan Chanda (4.5) beat Baadur Jobava (GEO, 3.5); Ma Qun (CHN, 4) drew with Le Quang Liem (VIE, 4); Yuriy Kryvoruchko (UKR, 4) drew with Ivan Saric (CRO, 4); Jaan Ehlvest (USA, 3.5) drew with Abhijeet Gupta (3.5); Mikheil Mchedlishvili (GEO, 4) beat Gadir Guseinov (AZE, 3); S Satyapragyan (3.5) drew with Mircea-Emilian Parligras (ROU, 3.5); Tejas Bakre (3.5) drew with Safarli Eltaj (AZE, 3.5); Constantin Lupulescu (ROU, 4) beat V Saravanan (3); Ankit Rajpara (3) lost to Zaven Andriasian (ARM, 3.5); Sagar Shah (2.5) lost to Ni Hua (CHN, 3.5); Tigran Petrosian (ARM, 3.5) beat Ashwin Jayaram (2.5); Debashis Das (3) drew with A R Saleh Salem (UAE, 3); Yuri Solodovnichenko (UKR, 2.5) drew with Aditya Udeshi (2.5); Arjun Bharat (2) lost to Vishnu Prasanna (3); Akshat Khamparia (2) drew with Nelson Mariano (PHI, 2); Anurag Mhamal (1.5) lost to Vita Chulivska (UKR, 2.5). PTI