APRIL 7: Indian Grandmaster Dibyendu Barua closed in on the leader with a hard-fought victory over Koneru Humpy, whose solid style makes her a difficult proposition. On the other hand, Russian top seed Andrey Shariyazdanov (4 points) decided to settle for a `friendly' draw with compatriot Alexander Fominyh to maintain half a point lead after the conclusion of the fifth round of the Chalapathi International Grandmasters Chess Tournament, at Chalapathi Residential School, here on Friday.Barua and Fominyh are placed second with 3.5 points. Abhijit Kunte (Ind) and Zia-ur-Rahman (Ban) tasted their first victory in the tournament. Kunte got through Leonid Yurtaev in a long drawn out game while Zia handed Prakash his first defeat of the event.Krishnan Sasikiran's dynamic pawn sacrifices created a lot of complication for Saravanan, who could not find the correct defence in time pressure, and suffered his third consecutive loss.The second seed Ildar Ibragimov of Russia showed his GM strength on Friday after Sandipan Chanda misplayed the opening. He was not allowed to recover by Ibragimov, who displayed sound technique and understanding in the Ruy Lopez Worral Variation.Whenever Thipsay and Prasad meet, there seems to be only one possible result - draw. Friday was no different. Thipsay went for a pawn sacrifice in the Sicilian Scheveningen but was forced to create threats to get the pawn back rather than go for his opponents throat. Finally he regained the pawn to settle for draw. The last decisive encounter between them occurred in the '92 Patna National `A' when Thipsay won.Sasikiran's daring pawn sacrifices on the 23rd (e5) and 25th move (f5) followed by transferring the bishop to e5 from g5 sent the game into wild complications.Saravanan facing a dangerous attack consumed a lot of time for finding the right way to diffuse the attack. In severe time trouble when pieces were flying off the board, Saravanan missed 34 Rg7 which should have earned him a draw. Sasikiran forced a Queen exchange transposing into a won King and pawn ending.Results (5th round): Abhijit Kunte (Ind) 2 bt L Yurtaev (KGZ) 2, K Humpy (Ind) 1 lost to D Barua (Ind) 3.5, PM Thipsay (Ind) 1.5 drew DV Prasad (Ind) 2, Sandipan Chanda (Ind) 3 lost to I Ibragimov (Rus) 3, A Shariyazdanov (Rus) 4 drew A Fominyh (Rus) 3.5, K Sasikiran (Ind) 3 bt V Saravanan (Ind) 2, Zia-ur-Rahman (Ban) 1.5 bt GB Prakash (Ind) 2.
