Chalkida: Grandmaster Surya Shekhar
Ganguly outplayed Adam Tukhaev of Ukraine to take his tally to
six points after the eighth round of the inaugural Negroponte
International open chess tournament here.
The victory against Tukhaev, who had jointly won the
preceding International tournament at Kavala with Abhijeet
Gupta, was a good comeback for Ganguly after his shocking
defeat at the hands of Suat Atalik of Turkey.
With just one round to come in the event, Sandipan Chanda
is the other Indian having six points and only these two have
a chance to be amongst the top five finishers.
In the penultimate round, Sandipan defeated compatriot D
Harika.
Meanwhile at the top of the tables, Suat Atalik played
out a draw with Vladimir Burmakin of Russia.
Robert Hess of United States defeated Zaven Andriasian of
Armenia to share the lead with Atalik with seven points and
Burmakin is behind two leaders with 6.5 points to his credit.
Ganguly and Chanda are in the next pack of 17 players
having six points each.
Grandmaster and 2008 world junior champion Abhijeet Gupta
is the lone Indian amongst 5.5 pointers and behind him are GM
Deepan Chakkravarthy, Harika, Sahaj Grover, Vishnu Prasanna,
M Shyam Sundar and Vaibhav Suri who all have five points each.
Tania Sachdev, Soumya Swaminathan and Karma Pandya are
all on 4.5 points hoping for an improved performance in the
final round.
The penultimate round was in fact a mixed day for the
Indians. Ganguly played a superb game to beat Tukhaev from the
white side of a Nimzo Indian defense while Chanda had some
anxious moments before he could count in the full point
against Harika.
Abhijeet Gupta was held to a draw by Joshua Friedel of
United States in a game of fluctuating fortunes while young
guns Sahaj Grover and Vaibhav Suri lost to Stelios Halkias of
Greece and Sergei Zablotsky ofRussia respectively. Vishnu
Prasanna also lost to David Alberto of Luxembourg.
Amongst others Indians, M Shyam Sundar was held to a draw
by lower ranked Antoine Berube of Canada while Deepan
Chakkravarthy and Tania Sachdev recorded victories.
PTI
First Published: Tuesday, August 17, 2010, 18:35