Thaindian News

By Arindam Basu

Kolkata, Sep 4 (IBNS) Local Grandmaster Sandipan Chanda shot in to the lead along with four other Grandmasters after the third round of the 4th Kolkata Open Grandmaster Chess tournament being organized by Alekhine Chess Club at Gorky Sadan.

GM Nigel Short of England, GM Eltaj Safarli of Azerbaijan, GM Magesh Chandran of India and GM Enamul Hossain of Bangladesh are the other leaders.

Short won another good game with the white pieces against GM Merab Gagunashvili of Georgia. It was a Caro Kan defence employed by the Georgian and it proved inadequate. Short used a wicked pin against his opponent’s king to eventually win the game on the 40th move.

GM Eltaj Safarli of Azerbaijan stopped the winning streak of International Master Himanshu Sharma. The Indian IM was on the defensive from the onset with his Sicilian defence and his exposed king was subjected to a neat combination which would have eventually led to mate. The game lasted twenty six moves.

GM Sandipan Chanda used his white pieces effectively to crush Grandmaster Rustam Khusnutdinov in a Queens Gambit accepted game. The Indian GM won his opponents queen for a rook and a minor piece and used his material advantage to eventually pocket the full point.

GM Magesh Chandran was lucky to win against GM Rauf Mamedov of Azerbaijan. He had two knights against the King and pawn of his opponent but still managed to win a theoretically drawn position when the Azerbaijian GM lost his way in time trouble.

Indian Grandmasters Surya Sekhar Ganguly and Abhijit Kunte took draws in twenty moves against fellow Grandmasters Ziaur Rahman of Bangladesh and Vadim Malakhatko of Belgium respectively.