Sengupta shocks Bologan in Gibraltar chess tourney

Gibraltar: Grandmaster Deep Sengupta shocked fifth seed Viktor Bologan of Moldova in the second round of Tradewise Gibraltar chess tournament.

In sublime form for some time now, Sengupta had recently won the Hastings International tournament and the victory over Bologan is one of the career best for the young GM. The day`s thunder however was stolen by 80-year-old Grandmaster Viktor Korchnoi who defeated third seed and world number 26 Fabiano Caruana of Italy, more than 60 years his junior. It turned out to be a generally good day for the Indians as GMs Sandipan Chanda and G N Gopal also emerged as the co-leaders in this strong tournament that has a little over Rs 90 lakh in prizes. Chanda accounted for America`s Anna Zatonskih while Gopal had it easy against Anthony Bellaiche of France.After an unexpected first round draw against Justin Sarkar of United States, former world junior champion P Harikrishna also came back to the winning ways against compatriot GM norm holder Vaibhav Suri. Krishnan Sasikiran, who started the tournament with a half point bye from the opener began his catching-up act at the expense of Ruiz Monica Calzetta of Spain while double GM norm holder D Harika also scored her first win defeating Vea Odin Blikra of Norway. Eesha Karavade also did well to hold GM Giorgi Kacheishvili to a creditable draw but Arghyadip Das found his nemesis in Vasilios Kotronias of Greece. At the top of the tables, top seed Vassily Ivanchuk had little troubles in cruising past Pable Lafuente of Argentina but second seed and defending champion Michael Adams of England was forced to split the point by Nana Dzagnidze of Georgia.Deep Sengupta was the pick amongst the Indians with his clinical performance against Bologan. The Indian stuck to his first love French defense and found Bologan`s treatment inadequate in the opening. Sengupta seized the initiative with a timely breakthrough on the kingside and as Bologan went on the other flank looking for the counter play the Indian caused further damage with some wily manoeuvres. The game lasted 35 moves. Chanda faced the Queen`s gambit declined against Anna Zatonskih and outplayed her in the heavy pieces endgame to win in 41 moves while Harikrishna had to work hard to outwit youngster Vaibhav Suri. PTI