Calcutta: The weather was overcast and gloomy in the city and it was equally depressing for the Calcuttans at Gorky Sadan on Tuedsay.
India’s best bet in the ongoing Kolkata Open Grandmaster Chess meet, sponsored by the Peerless, city-based GM Sandipan Chanda went down to Anton Filippov to fall behind in the title race. Sandipan held the upper hand for most part of the game, but he went astray under time pressure and handed the game on a platter to Filippov.
Meanwhile, IM S. Satyapragyan emerged as the highest-ranked Indian as he upset GM Mikheil Mchedlishvili. In the process, Satyapragyan earned a Grandmaster 9 game-GM norm. WGM Nisha Mohota, who drew with IM Deep Sengupta, completed her third and final men’s IM norm.
Sayantan Das and C. Praveen Kumar earned their IM norms on Tuesday. Sayantan upset GM Enamul Hossain to make his maiden norm..
GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly stopped 14-year-old Sahaj Grover’s brilliant run in the tournament. A bewildered Sahaj went down to Surya Sekhar in 51 moves. S Nigel Short outplayed GM Magesh Chandran.
Meanwhile, the India government has sanctioned a grant of Rs 6 lakh for the tournament.
Top board results
GM Le Quang Liem (6.5) drew GM Viktor Laznicka(6); GM Anton Filippov (6.5) bt GM Sandipan Chanda (5.5); GM Eltaj Safarli (5.5) drew GM Shakriyar Mamedyarov (5.5); GM Evgeny Postny (6) bt GM Jan Markos (5); GM Rustam Khustnutdinov(5.5) drew GM Aleksej Aleksandrov(5.5); GM Rauf Mamedov(5.5) drew IM B Adhiban(5.5); GM Parimarjan Negi (5.5) drew IM RR Laxman(5.5); IM S Satyapragyan(6) bt GM Mchedlishvili Mikheil(5); GM Magesh Chandran(4.5) lost to GM Nigel Short( 5.5); FM Sahaj Grover(4.5) lost to GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly (5.5); IM Himanshu Sharma(4.5) lost to GM G.N.Gopal(5.5); GM Merab Gagunashvili (5.5) beat IM P Konguvel(4.5); GM Ni Hua (5) bt GM Sundararajan Kidambi(4.5); GM Vladislav Tkachiev(5) bt IM BT Muralikrishnan(4); GM Gadir Guseinov (5) bt IM SP Sethuraman (4); GM Abhijeet Gupta(5) bt GM Tejas Bakre(4); GM Vadim Malakhatko(4.5) drew R Arun Karthik(4); IM K Rathnakaran(4) lost to GM Ziaur Rahman(5); FM Vidit Santosh Gujrathi (4.5) drew GM Anuar Ismagambetov(4.5); Sayantan Das (5) bt GM Enamul Hossain (4).
