Surya Sekhar joins elite group of Grandmasters

Surya Shekhar Ganguly became the eighth Grandmaster of the country after an easy draw with Grandmaster Iosef Dorfman in the 12th round of 35...

Surya Shekhar Ganguly became the eighth Grandmaster of the country after an easy draw with Grandmaster Iosef Dorfman in the 12th round of 35th chess Olympiad here which also saw the 24th seed Indian men’s team hold 11th seed France to a draw.

The Indian men drew all their boards to take their tally to 28 points.The Indian eves defeated Germany 2-1 to move to joint 10th poition on 21.5 points with two more rounds remaining.

Top seed Russia with 34.5 points, continued to dominate in the men’s section and defeated Croatia 2.5-1.5 to

maintain their two-point lead over nearest rivals Hungary. Ninth seed Armenia provided the shocker of the day as they defeated third seed Ukraine 3-1 to jump to sole third position on 30 points.

Ganguly achieved his third and final GM norm quite effortlessly. Playing white against Dorfman on the second board after Indian think-tank rested GM P Harikrishna, Ganguly played it safe with the white pieces and employed the Rossolimo variation against Sicilian Defence. The draw was agreed to in just 12 moves at Ganguly’s behest when the position was just level.