Ganguly finishes off with a win
FROM OUR CHESS CORRESPONDENT ABU DHABI, AUG 23 (PTI)
Indian Grandmaster Surya Shekhar Ganguly scored a comprehensive
victory over Russian GM Mikhail Ulibin in the ninth round to finish
13h in the Master’s section at the 15th Abu Dhabi International Chess
festival that concluded here today.
Grandmaster Ashot Anastasian of Armenia won the title after playing a
quick draw with GM Alexei Federov of Belarus. Anastasian finished
with a tally of seven points out of a possible nine and pocketed the
first prize of USD 4,000.
Grandmaster Dmitry Bocharov of Russia defeated Ukrainian GM Alexander
Goloshachapov.
Bocharov and Uzbekistan’s International Master Sergey Kayumov tied
for the second spot scoring 6.5 points each while Ganguly finished
13th with six points.
Ganguly yet again showcased his superior endgame technique to outplay
Ulibin who played the black side of a French defence game.
Playing the Winawer variation, Ganguly got an advantage in the
opening itself and nurtured it well to win a pawn.
Ulibin found some solace in an exchange sacrifice for some optical
attack but Ganguly was on his guard and timely trading of queens led
to a difficult endgame for black.
Ganguly wrapped up the issue in 55 moves after tying black pieces to
passive defence.
The final round saw another spurt from Eesha Karavade who beat
Grandmaster Vladimir Dobrov of Russia. With this victory, Karavade
secured another Woman Grandmaster norm scoring 5.5 points in the
event.
International Master D V Prasad also finished on 5.5 points after
settling for another draw. GM Sergey Grigoriants of Russia failed to
break the solid defence of the Indian and had to split the point
despite playing white. Abhijeet Gupta was on the receiving end
against third seed and former Russia champion Sergei Volkov. Playing
with black, Gupta could not produce the form that helped him amass
important points in the first seven rounds. Despite losses in the
last two rounds, the Bhilwara based youngster is expected to gain
some important ELO rating points from this tournament.
Parimarjan Negi struck some late form and grounded Mesgen Amanov of
Turkmenistan in a fine game with black pieces.
Amongst other Indians in the fray, Akshat Khamparia and Krutika Nadig
were on the receiving end going down to GM Stefan Djuric of Serbia
and Meilis Annaberdiev of Turkmenistan respectively.
M B Muralidharan drew with Sergei Simonenko of Turkmenistan while
Tania Sachdev shared the point with Elshan Moradiabadi of Iran.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress