India`s Kulkarni holds Georgian GM Merab to a draw

Mumbai: Indian Master Vikramaditya Kulkarni surprised Grand Master Gagunashvili Merab by holding the Georgian to a draw in the 6th Mumbai Mayor International Chess Tournament hosted by the National Sports Club of India here.

At the end of the second round 22 players were in the lead with 2 points apiece. IM Kulkarni (ELO 2350) of Mumbai held the 4th-seeded Merab (ELO 2592) to a draw in 43 moves. Playing with white, Vikramaditya offered his `h` pawn to gain the space to attack on the king side. On the 27th move the Indian IM again offered his knight to open the castling. But this gave an advantage to Merab. Being a piece up, Merab missed a golden chance of exchanging the queen and, instead, gave a knight which forced him to offer his rook to save himself. With only the queen and some pawns left on the board, both signed the peace treaty. On the top board no.1 seed GM M Mikheil (ELO 2645) of Georgia played the Spanish Opening against GM Ziatdinov Raset (ELO 2348) of USA. Raset gave a pawn on the 16th move to avoid the exchange of queens, thus giving a slight advantage to Mekheil who then went on to win the game. Second seed GM Amonatov Farrukh (ELO 2616) defeated a fighting Aravindh Chithambaram (ELO 2328) of India after a long drawn-out battle that consisted of 80 moves. PTI