Saravanan, Ramesh record victories

BIEL, AUGUST 1: International Masters V Saravanan and RB Ramesh scored emphatic victories in the seventh round of the Biel Open Chess tour...

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BIEL, AUGUST 1: International Masters V Saravanan and RB Ramesh scored emphatic victories in the seventh round of the Biel Open Chess tournament while S Kidambi and TS Ravi settled for draws. The fifth Indian in fray IM Konguvel lost to IM Pelletier of Switzerland.

Both Saravanan and Ramesh have 4.5 points each.

Kidambi was well on course to stage an upset when he won a pawn from the white side of the Grunfeld Russian System against GM Tseitlin of Israel.

He then went for the exchange of queens but the experienced Grandmaster managed to block Kidambi’s all entry points and escaped with a draw in a double rook and bishop versus double rook and knight endgame.

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Kidambi, with four points, now requires 1.5 points from two rounds to get his final IM norm.

TS Ravi won a pawn quite early in the Catalans Opening against Kuemin of Switzerland. However, his opponent got a lead in development as compensation.

When Kuemin threatened to win back the pawn, Ravi was forced to repeat the position thrice and draw the game in 20 moves. Ravi has 3.5 points.

Konguvel faced the Sicilian Najdorf Opening from the white pieces of IM Pelletier of Switzerland and castled on the Queenside.

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In an unclear position, the Indian sacrificed two minor pieces for a rook and some initiative. Pelletier defended well at this stage and managed to co-ordinate his pieces together to win the game in 50 moves. Konguvel remains on four points.

On the second board, GM Shariyazdanov of Russia played an unusual form of Benko Gambit and crushed overnight leader GM Burmakin to join GM Sturva in the lead with 5.5 points.

Other important results: Tukmakov (5) drew Sturva (5.5); Burmakin (4.5) lost to Shariyazdanov (5.5); Aurukh (5) drew Huzman (5); A Galkin (5) drew Kempinski (5).

Humpy, Arthie win
SOMERSET: Indian players had a fairly good outing on the inaugural day of the British Chess Federation’s 87th annual championships which features 11 Grandmasters, 12 International Masters and a number of Fide Masters.

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Former world U-12 champion Koneru Humpy (Elo 2286), current world U-18 champion Aarthie Ramaswamy (Elo 2319) and Fide Master Mahesh Chandran (Elo 2238) had an impressive first round.

Chandran, playing with white pieces on top table against defending champion Hodgson Julian (ELO 2640), faced a Sicilian Najdorf variation from his opponent, and forced Hodgson to share the points in 49 moves.

Koneru and Aarthie faced little difficulty recording convincing victories.

In the British Junior Chess Championship sections, as many as 6 children from India are participating in various age-groups. Current u-12 Asian champion Abhijeet Gupta stunned his opponent in just 27 moves while . Sankalp Modwal also won his first-round match against English girl Smailes Fiaoa in 39 moves in the u-11 section. However, VK Sindhu and Parimarjan Negi, playing in this age-group, lost their first-round matches.