Joint leader P Karthikeyan moved into sole lead with 7.5 points as second seed Grandmaster Ahmed Adly of Egypt, citing illness, failed to turn up for the eighth round at the Apollo Engineering College Commonwealth Chess Championships 2012 at SDAT Multipurpose Indoor Stadium, Chennai here today.
Following Karthikeyan at 7.0 points were Grandmasters Sergei Tiviakov (The Netherlands) and M R Venkatesh (India).
In the top board, Tiviakov faced the advanced French defence from Rathnakaran, and started pressing for the initiative from the word go. Tiviakov further made in-roads as the Indian failed to see the intervening bishop check on the 19th move losing a pawn.
Top board game between Tiviakov and Rathnakaran watched by the trio GM Adhiban, O T Anil Kumar and Shweta Gole
Moving the black king out of its shelter, Tiviakov went all out to corner the black king and forced the game in his favor after 33 moves.
Chennai based Ram S Krishnan made his third and final International Master Norm scoring over two time National Premier Champion Tania Sachdev. Logging in 6.5 points Ram completed the requirement for a nine game International Master Norm.
The Nimzo Indian game saw Tania going along the theoretical lines, before she threw in a knight sacrifice on the black monarch. Ram kept the material, defended accurately and clinched the crucial win after 31 moves.
International Master Elect Ram S Krishnan
GM Sergei Tiviakov – IM K Rathnakaran
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 Nf6 4.e5 Nfd7 5.c3 c5 6.Bd3 Nc6 7.Ne2 cxd4 8.cxd4 f6 9.exf6 Nxf6 10.O-O Bd6 11.Nf3 Qc7 12.Bg5 O-O 13.Rc1 a6 14.a3 Bd7 15.Ng3 Rae8 16.Re1 Qb6 17.Ne5 Bc8 18.Bxf6 Rxf6 19.Bxh7 Kf8 20.Ng6 Kf7 21.Qh5 Bxg3 22.hxg3 Qxd4 23.Nf4 Kf8 24.Bg6 Rd8 25.Rcd1 Qxb2 26.Rxd5 Ke7 27.Rxd8 Kxd8 28.Qh8 Kc7 29.Qxg7 Kb8 30.Be4 Qd4 31.Nd3 Qd8 32.Bxc6 bxc6 33.Ne5 1-0
GM Alexander Fominyh – GM M R Venkatesh
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nf3 Bg7 4.g3 O-O 5.Bg2 d6 6.O-O Nc6 7.Nc3 a6 8.Re1 Rb8 9.Rb1 Bf5 10.e4 Bg4 11.Be3 Nd7 12.Ne2 e5 13.d5 Ne7 14.Nd2 Bxe2 15.Qxe2 f5 16.exf5 gxf5 17.Nf3 Ng6 18.Qc2 Qf6 19.b4 Rbe8 20.Rb3 f4 21.Bc1 Rf7 22.Nd4 Ndf8 23.Ne6 Bh6 24.Rf1 Rb8 25.Be4 Nxe6 26.dxe6 Rg7 27.Qd1 Ne7 28.c5 Qxe6 29.cxd6 cxd6 30.Rd3 Rd8 31.Qc2 fxg3 32.hxg3 Rc8 33.Bd5 Nxd5 0-1
IM Tania Sachdev – Ram S Krishnan
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 Nc6 3.Nf3 e6 4.Nc3 Bb4 5.Qc2 O-O 6.Bd2 d6 7.a3 Bxc3 8.Bxc3 a5 9.e4 Qe7 10.e5 dxe5 11.dxe5 Nd7 12.Bd3 h6 13.Qe2 Rd8 14.O-O Nf8 15.Be4 Bd7 16.Rfd1 Be8 17.Rxd8 Rxd8 18.Re1 Qc5 19.Bc2 Qb6 20.Qe4 Nb8 21.Qg4 c5 22.Nd2 Nc6 23.Ne4 Nd4 24.Nf6 Kh8 25.Bb1 gxf6 26.exf6 Ng6 27.h4 Qd6 28.Qh5 Qf4 29.Qxc5 Bc6 30.Bxg6 Qg4 31.g3 Qh3 0-1
Vijayalakshmi vs Mark Paragua watched by IM Rathnakaran, Navalgund Niranjan, GM Alexander Fominyh and International Arbiter Sakthi Prabhakar
International Master Oliver Dimakiling (Philippines)
Grandmaster R R Laxman
LIVE Games : http://monroi.com/watch/?tnm_id=1656
R R Vasudevan
Press Officer
Apollo Engineering College Commonwealth Chess Championships 2012
