Abhijeet, Gopal joint second after round six of Asian Chess
Former world junior champion Abhijeet Gupta outwitted Nguyen Huynh Minh Huy of Vietnam to become joint second on 4.5 points after the sixth round of the Asian Continental Chess Championship here.
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Subic Bay: Former world junior
champion Abhijeet Gupta outwitted Nguyen Huynh Minh Huy of
Vietnam to become joint second on 4.5 points after the sixth
round of the Asian Continental Chess Championship here.
Another Indian Grandmaster G N Gopal drew with tournament
leader Wesley So of Philippines in 32 moves to remain in the
second spot, which he also shares with Chinese trio of Ni Hua,
Li Chao, Yu Yangyi and Bayarsekhan Gundavaa of Mongolia.
Abhijeet played his pet Grunfeld defence to score an
important victory with black pieces. The Indian was surprised
to see a very peaceful approach by Huy as he went for a series
of exchanges that quickly led to a rook and minor pieces
endgame.
Abhijeet increased his chances with some deft manoeuvres
and the Vietnamese cracked when he faced some real threats.
Losing a pawn, Huy transposed to a rook and pawns endgame but
the position was already lost.
Second seed Krishnan Sasikiran was surprisingly held by
lower-ranked John Paul Gomez of Philippines. After a fine
start with victories in first two rounds, Sasikiran has
managed to win only one game in the next four besides a loss
and a draw.
Another Indian P Harikrishna also could not break the ice
against Zeng Chongsheng of China.
Harikrishna is now in a situation where he may has to win
all the remaining three games to keep alive his hopes of
qualifying for the next World Cup for which there are five
places reserved. Harikrishna has 3.5 points so far.
Grandmaster Tejas Bakre improved his chances in the
tournament at the expense of Ziaur Rahman of Bangladesh. It
was one of the most interesting games of the day as Tejas
matched Zia move for move from an irregular Sicilian and
sacrificed an exchange to get a winning middle game.
S P Sethuraman accounted for Allan Macal of Philippines
to also reach four points like Bakr, while National Champion B
Adhiban was held to a draw by Chinese Yu Ruiyuan.
In the women`s section, former champion Tania Sachdev and
S Meenakshi improved their standings with fine victories in
the sixth round.
The other Indian in the fray, Kiran Manisha Mohanty held
second seed Tan Zhongyi to a draw. All the three Indians have
3.5 points while there is a two-way tie at the top between
Atousa Pourkashiyan of Iran and Wang Yu of China.
PTI
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