Piket stuns Kasparov for title
ENS and PTI

CHENNAI, FEBRUARY 21: Jeroen Piket of the Netherlands stunned World No 1 Garry Kasparov of Russia (1.5-0.5) in the final of Kasparov Grand Prix On-line Rapid Chess Tournament on Sunday. Piket took home $ 20,000.

Piket defeated former American champion Yasser Seirawan, World No 5 Russian Alexander Morozevich and three-time Russian champion Peter Svidler before handing Kasparov his first defeat of the new millennium.

This is Piket's second victory over Kasparov, the first one coming in '95 VSB tournament in Amsterdam. The Dutchman came close to winning against the Russian in the recently concluded Wijk aan Zee tournament.

Kunte starts in style
SANGLI: Newly-crowned Grandmaster Abhijit Kunte launched himself in the elite category with a short work of Sri Lankan V Roshi De Silva even as other Indians succumbed to the better-rated east European rivals in the inaugural round of the Sangli International Open Chess tournament.

IM V Saravanan drew GM Joseph Gallagher (Switzerland) from a SicilianNajdorf defence game with white pieces.

Sriram Jha could not put his extra pawn to the desired use and had to settle for a draw against GM Saidali Yuldachev of Uzbekistan.

Copyright © 2000 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.