Sasi survives scare

Sasi survives scare
K Srinivasa Raghavan

CHENNAI, AUGUST 20: The eagerly awaited clash between top seed Evgeny Vladimirov and India's second best player Krishnan Sasikiran ended in a draw after going through some tense moments in the endgame. Dibyendu Barua produced a miniature against Devaki Prasad, whose GM norm chances theoretically ended on Sunday after the seventh round of the Pentamedia Grandmaster Chess Tournament at Kelambakkam here.

Alexander Fominyh went into the rest day Monday with a smile on his face. The burly Russian had a cakewalk against Surya Shekar Ganguly. The International Master from Calcutta got into trouble early on in the opening from the Queen's Gambit Accepted. He could not castle and was forced to create weakness in the kingside. By the time, Ganguly tried to consolidate and castle, his position was bad. Fominyh won a pawn on the 32nd move. Ganguly quit the next move, a bit premature it seemed.

However, it will be tough to defend that position.

Sasikiran-Vladimirov encounter turned technical after Vladimirov got rid of the queens in the 12th move from the Nimzo-Indian defence. The Kazakh made an energetic pawn thurst with 16 `g4' looking for the initiative. Sasikiran strained every sinew to grab an advantage, losing a pawn in the ending, although it was a doubled one. The Chennai GM's 29 `Ke4' was missed by Vladimirov and the game became equal. The truce was done on the 41st move with nothing left to play.

Barua rubbed salt in to Prasad's wound inflicting a crushing defeat in 25 moves. Prasad having missed a draw and win in the last two days could not give his best, committing mistakes aplenty to see his king ripped off by Barua.

Results (Round seven): Sasikiran (Ind) 5.5 drew with Vladimirov (Kaz) 5, Sandipan Chanda (Ind) 2 drew with Harikrishna (Ind) 4, Fominyh (Rus) 3.5 bt Ganguly (Ind) 2, Barua (Ind) 3.5 bt Prasad (Ind) 2, Yuldachev (Uzb) 2 lost to Reefat Bin Sattar (Ban) 3, Prakash (Ind) 4 drew with Ghaem Maghami Ehsan (Irn) 2.5, Abhijit Kunte (Ind) 3 bye.