Ramesh joins the title race

Ramesh joins the title race
AGENCIES

BENASQUE (Spain), July 15: International Master RB Ramesh shocked third seeded Grandmaster Gilberto Hernandez and moved into the joint lead with 7.5 points after the ninth and penultimate round of the Benasque Open chess tournament here on Saturday.

Ramesh upset Hernandez, who has 2572 Elo points, on the second board from the white side of the Richter-Rauzer variation to throw the chase of the title wide open. Seven players are now tied at the top as the tournament entered the final round here last night.

GMs Komljenovic, Morsziszian, Ramesh, Gilberto Hernandez, Lifuentes Parada, Mihail Marin, Jansa and IM Hidalgo are in the race for the Benasque title.Ramesh played relatively unknown setup in the opening and Hernandez couldn't find the correct plan and allowed Ramesh to go for a dangerous attack against his black king. Ramesh posted his pawns swiftly and won a pawn in the ensuing complications. Hernandez was about to lose two more pawns or get checkmated when he resigned on the 32nd move.

The Indian, however, does not have much chance for a GM norm as he has played three unrated players in the initial rounds.

IM Saravanan played the advance variation of Caro Kann to score a facile victory over Jonathan Grant. Vedant Goswami got a comfortable position from Reti opening against Sueninggaard of Denmark with a timely `c5' break.

Important Results (Round nine): Komljenovic (7.5) drew with Mousziszian (7.5); Ramesh (7.5) beat Gilberto Hernandez (7.5); Berzinsh Rolands (7) drew with Cifuentes Parada (7); Pogorelov (6.5) lost to Mihail Marin (7.5); Jansa (7.5) beat Angel Martin (6.5); Ioan Cosma (6.5) lost to H Hidalgo (7.5); Saravanan (6.5) beat Jonathan Grant (5.5); Vedant Goswami (5.5) drew with Suenninggaard (5.5). Iranian IM pulls outsHYDERABAD: Even before the first move could be made the Wipro Grandmaster Chess Tournament suffered a pull out with highly rated International Master Easan Ghaem Maghami withdrawing from the the Category 11 tournament citing Visa problems for non-participation in the 15-day tournament.

Immediately after the inauguration the players went into a customary huddle along with chief arbiter PT Ummer Koya and his two deputies to decide on the contentious issue of timing of the matches and other issues like prize money, formation of appeals committee and protests.

Addressing the press after the one-hour meeting, arbiter Nasiruddin Ghalib disclosed that in view of the withdrawal of the Iranian IM, each of the remaining 13 players would be given a bye in one round.

Grandmaster Leonid Yurtaev Kirgystan, whose arrival has been delayed due to non-availability of flight, has been given a bye in the first round, which starts Sunday. Yurtaev is expected here on Monday. He will play top seed Vladimirov Evegeny of Kazakhastan immediately after his arrival.

The players, according to Ghalib, decided to split the prize money in case of a tie for any position. The appeals committee of the tournament is also formed. It will consist of the Vladimirov, Prasad and Fominyh with Vijayalakshmi and Sorokin being the reserves.

Indians bow out

MUMBAI: India's Madan Bagayatkar lost his 8th and penultimate round match against 11th seed Mas of Spain while his compatriots Charudatta Jadhav and Vilesh Bhat posted wins over two other Spaniards Iiuerga and Dicz in the World Cup Chess Championship for the Blind at Benasque (Spain) on Saturday. Bagayatkar needed to win today's match to be among the prize winners but his loss to Mas (ELO 2163), who had the advantage of playing with white pieces, and gave no chance to his rival in a French defence advance variation, ensured that no Indian would figure in the list, according to a release from the All India Chess Federation for the Blind.

The fourth Indian in fray, Shirish Patil, lost to highly rated 4th seed Draguici of Spain (Elo rating 2229) in a French defence advance variation game.

With one more round left, Jadhav and Bagayatkar had 4 points each to their credit, Bhat had 3.5 while Patil had 3. There are 26 rated players in a total field of 64 players from 22 countries in the event.