Outlook , India
Aug 20 2005

Ganguly suffers shocking defeat from Gooshchapov

>>From our Chess Correspondent Abu Dhabi (UAE) Aug 20 (PTI)

Grandmaster Surya Shekhar Ganguly suffered a shocking defeat at
the hands of Grandmaster Alexander Gooshchapov of Ukraine in the
fifth round of the Master’s section of Abu Dhabi International Chess
Festival here.

Grandmaster Ashot Anastasian of Armenia shot into sole lead with an
emphatic victory over GM Ghaem Maghami Ehsan of Iran. The Armenian
took his tally to an impressive 4.5 points and is now trailed by five
players including Goloshchapov on 4 points. Ganguly, after the loss,
remained on 3 points.

Candidate International Masters Parimarjan Negi and Abhijeet Gupta
raised visions of a good finish on a much better day for the other
Indians in the fray. Negi drew with much higher rated Azerbaijani
International Master Rasul Ibrahimov while Gupta efficiently brushed
aside the challenge of Amanov Mesgen of Turkmenistan to reach three
points each with just four rounds remaining in this US $ 16400 prize
money tournament.

Ganguly was a trifle unlucky as he mishandled a better position to go
down. Playing against the French defense by Goloshchapov, the current
National Champion got a slight advantage after the opening and went
for an interesting pawn sacrifice in the middle game to initiate an
attack against the King. Goloshchapov found some solace in the trading
of queens even though his pawn structure was decidedly fractured in
the process.

At one point in the middle game Ganguly had a choice to take a draw
by repetition of position but the Indian simply tried too hard to
force matters.