Indian Grandmaster M R Lalith Babu drew his top board game against GM Oleksienko Mikhailo of Ukraine and moved in shared lead with 5.5 points after the sixth round of the Apollo Engineering College Commonwealth Chess Championships 2012 at SDAT – Multipurpose Indoor Stadium, Chennai here today.
Joining the duo on top of the points table at 5.5 points were top seed Sergei Tiviakov (The Netherlands), Adly Ahmed (Egypt), M R Venkatesh, P Karthikeyan, Ram S Krishnan (all India) respectively.
Further half a point behind at 5.0 points were Lintchevski Daniil, Alexander Fominyh (both Russia), Marat Dzhumaev (Uzbekistan), Mark Paragua (Philippines), SP Sethuraman, Sahaj Grover, M Shyam Sundar, G Akash, Kathmale Sameer, K Rathnakaran, R Arun Karthik and Ankit R Rajpara (all India).
Grandmaster M R Lalith Babu
The advanced Caro Kann top board game between Oleksienko Mikhailo (Ukraine) and M R Lalith Babu saw the higher rated Ukraine Grandmaster playing for the initiative. His unorthodox style was well handled by Lalith Babu who snatched a perpetual check from a queen and double rook middle game.
In the second board, joint leader Indian Grandmaster SP Sethuraman missed on an intervening combination that spelt his loss against former World Junior Champion Adly Ahmed of Egypt. Following the Caro Kann, as in the top board, albeit a different line, Sethuraman appeared to be better out of the opening.
Grandmaster Ahmed Adly (Egypt)
White’s advanced pawns were pressing against Adly’s center, posing disturbing threats. But the deft handling of double bishops coupled with an exchange sacrifice on the 30th move tilted the game in favor of the Egyptian. Sethuraman gave up faced with the loss of bishop or queen on the 39th move.
Chennai based Ram S Krishnan brought down GM Norm holder Akshayraj Kore in miniature game that lasted 21 moves. The Grunfeld game moved on theoretical lines, before the players went into the middle game.
Saddled with isolated pawns on the kingside, Ram went for maintaining his extra pawn. In what turned out to be a case of chess blindness, Akshayraj missed Ram’s penetrating rook check and resigned faced with heavy loss of material.
Grandmaster M R Venkatesh
GM SP Sethuraman – GM Adly Ahmed
1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Nd7 5.Ng5 Ndf6 6.N1f3 g6 7.Bc4 Nd5 8.Qe2 Bg7 9.Bd2 h6 10.Ne4 Ngf6 11.Nxf6 Bxf6 12.h3 Be6 13.Bb3 Qc7 14.O-O g5 15.Qe4 O-O-O 16.c4 Nf4 17.d5 Bd7 18.Rae1 e6 19.Bxf4 gxf4 20.Rd1 Bxb2 21.d6 Qa5 22.Qxf4 e5 23.Qd2 Bc3 24.Qe3 f6 25.c5 Bb4 26.Rc1 e4 27.Qxe4 Bxc5 28.Qf4 Bb6 29.Qxf6 Rhf8 30.Qxh6 Rxf3 31.gxf3 Qf5 32.f4 Bd4 33.Qg5 Qxh3 34.Rfd1 Bb6 35.Bd5 Rh8 36.Bg2 Qh7 37.Kf1 Rg8 38.Qe7 Qh2 39.Qe4 Rxg2 0-1
Ram S Krishnan – IM Akshayraj Kore
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.Nf3 Bg7 5.Bg5 Ne4 6.Bh4 Nxc3 7.bxc3 dxc4 8.Qa4 Nd7 9.e3 O-O 10.Qa3 c5 11.Bxc4 Qc7 12.Rc1 e5 13.O-O Nb6 14.Be2 Bg4 15.dxc5 e4 16.Nd4 Bxe2 17.Nxe2 Nd7 18.Be7 Rfc8 19.Rfd1 Nxc5 20.Bxc5 Qxc5 21.Rd8 1-0
Woman Grandmaster Padmini Rout
Grandmaster Marat Dzhumaev (Uzbekistan)
Round 6 Results (Indians unless specified):
Oleksienko Mikhailo (Ukr) 5.5 drew with M R Lalith Babu 5.5, SP Sethuraman 5 lost to Adly Ahmed (Egy) 5.5, Sergei Tiviakov (Ned) 5.5 bt Sundararajan Kidambi 4.5, Ankit R Rajpara 5 drew with Lintchevski Daniil (Rus) 5, Marat Dzhumaev (Uzb) 5 drew with R Arun Karthik 5, Himanshu Sharma 4.5 lost to M R Venkatesh 5.5, S Arun Prasad 4.5 lost to P Karthikeyan 5.5, Ram S Krishnan 5.5 bt Akshayraj Kore 4.5, B Adhiban 4.5 drew with Padmini Rout 4.5, T Purushothaman 4 lost Mark Paragua (Phi) 5, Alexander Fominyh (Rus) 5 bt P Priya 4, J Ramakrishna 4.5 drew with Rolando Nolte (Phi) 4.5
LIVE Games : http://monroi.com/watch/?tnm_id=1656
R R Vasudevan
Press Officer
Apollo Engineering College Commonwealth Chess Championships 2012
