The Press Trust of India
March 1, 2007 Thursday

Armenian, Kazakh GMs emerge leaders in Kolkata Open chess

Armenian GM Tigran Petrosian and Super GM Darmen Sadvakasov of
Kazakhstan broke away from the pack to emerge joint leaders with
brilliant victories in the fifth round of the USD 20,000 Kolkata
Open-07 Grandmasters Chess tournament here today.

Tigran, who had held Super GM Serjei Tiviakov of Holland yesterday,
played an exciting game against GM Safin Sukhrat with the former
playing queen’s gambit which was accepted by Safin.

It was an aggressive game in which Tigran emerged victorious taking
his points tally to 4.5.

Sadvakasov also climbed at the top of the ladder beating IM
Sundarajan Kidambi with a Guico Piano opening.

IM Sriram Jha won the quickest game of the day beating GM Niaz
Murshid of Bangladesh in 25 moves. Murshid, playing modern defence,
overlooked a simple tactic and resigned before Jha could pick up his
pawn.

Indian IM D P Singh was the cynosure of all eyes again today with
media as well as players closely watching his game against G N Gopal.
Singh, however, remained calm and composed and drew his game to end
the round at 3.5 points.

The Chess Players’ Association had yesterday alleged that Singh was
using unfair means prompting organisers to check him with a metal
detector and also had him examined by an ENT specialist.

Top seed GM Serjei Tiviakov of the Netherlands, playing with the
disadvantage of black pieces, was not too adventurous against Israeli
GM Alon Greenfeld. The game ended in a draw.