Short too has share of lead

Calcutta: City-based Grandmaster Sandipan Chanda emerged as the joint leader along with Nigel Short, P. Magesh Chandran, Eltaj Safarli and Enamul Hossain with three points each on the third day of Kolkata Open Chess Tournament at Gorky Sadan on Thursday.

GM Sandipan Chanda infused life into a sterile Catalan opening by creating mating threats which forced GM Rustam Kusnutdinov of Kazakhstan to give up his queen for a rook, but it proved futile and Kusnutdinov resigned a few moves later.

English GM Nigel Short once again played a sharp interesting game to outwit GM Merab Gagunashvili of Georgia in a Caro-Kann defence.

Giant killer Himanshu Sharma, who had upset defending champion Vicktor Laznica Wednesday, disappointed, going down rather tamely against Eltaj Safarli of Azerbaijan.

Himanshu mishandled the Sicilian defence and Safarli obtained a bind in the centre by a pawn sacrifice on move 11. Safarli’s knight outpost on d6 disrupted the co-ordination of Himanshu’s pieces, and he had to concede defeat by move 26.

The passed c-pawn of Bangldeshi GM Enamul Hossain proved too dangerous for former world junior champion GM Abhijeet Gupta of India in a Ruy Lopez opening. Gupta was forced to give up his bishop but Enamul effectively utilised his rook and knight to win the game.

GM Magesh Chandran got the better of GM Rauf Mamedov of Azerbaijan in a theoretically drawn endgame.

Top seed Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan shattered world under-14 boys’ champion Vidit Gujrathi’s kingside by a knight sacrifice in a Pannov–Botvinnik attack.

Vidit tried in vain to postpone the inevitable defeat by giving up his queen, but it could not alter the result.

India’s youngest Grandmaster Parimarjan Negi of Delhi faced little resistance from M. Shyam Sundar in a French defence as Negi broke open the castled kingside of his opponent with his rook and minor pieces.

Fourteen–year–old Sahaj Grover of Delhi upset GM Persson Tiger Hillarp with the black pieces in an English opening. Sahaj won a rook for knight in the middle game and attacked down the f-file with his major pieces to penetrate his opponent’s kingside. Hillarp swapped the queens and a pair of rook to ease the pressure. But Sahaj played the resulting end-game with precision to seal Hillarp’s fate.

TOP BOARD RESULTS

Nigel Short (3) bt Merab Gagunashvili (2); Ziaur Rahaman (2.5) drew with Surya Sekhar Ganguly (2.5); Rauf Mamedov (2) lost to P Magesh Chandran (3); Sandipan Chanda (3) bt Rustam Khusnutdinov (2); Eltaj Safarli (3) bt Himanshu Sharma (2); Enamul Hossain (3) bt Abhijeet Gupta (2); Abhijit Kunte (2.5) drew with Vadim Malakhatko (2.5); Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (2.5) bt Vidit Gujrathi (2); Gadir Guseinov (2.5) bt Tejas Bakre (1.5); P. Kartikeyan (2) drew with Evgeny Postny (2); Aleksej Aleksandrov (2.5) bt Swapnil Dhopade (1.5); Parimarjan Negi (2.5) bt M Shyam Sundar (1.5); Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury (1.5) lost to Mikheil Mchedlishvili (2.5); P. Konguvel (1.5) lost to Le Quang Liem (2.5); Persson Tiger Hillarp (1.5) lost to Sahaj Grover (2.5).