Rediff, India
Feb 17 2005
Sasikiran off to winning start
February 16, 2005 19:52 IST
Grandmaster Krishnan Sasikiran took off with a lucky victory over
veteran GM Vitaly Tseshkovsky of Russia in the opening round of the
Aeroflot International open chess tournament in Moscow.
The first round of the USD 175,000 event saw some surprises but it
turned out to be easy outings for top two seeds — Etinne Bacrot of
France and Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine — in the ‘A1’ section.
Both Bacrot and Ivanchuk won in identical fashion giving endgame
lessons to Russians Dmitry Jakovenko and Alexander Riazentsev
respectively.
Third seed and former World champion Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukraine was
held to a draw by Solak Dragan of Serbia.
Amongst the Indians in ‘A1’, National champion GM Surya Shekhar
Ganguly was quite impressive in holding higher rated GM Teimour
Radjabov of Azerbaijan to a draw with black pieces.
GM Sandipan Chanda also did a similar act against GM Bu Xiangzhi of
China.
It turned out to be a mixed first day for the other Indian hopefuls
and gaining the most was former Asian Junior girls champion Tania
Sachdev who scored over International Master Evgeny Kalegin of
Russia.
Tania, who is looking for her final Women Grandmaster norm here, got
a pleasant surprise on arrival as she was elevated to the ‘A2’ from
earlier permitted ‘B’ group in the event.
Apart from Tania, IM norm holder Parimarjan Negi and country’s latest
Women Grandmaster Eesha Karvade were also added to the higher group
wherein normally only players above 2400 ELO rating are allowed to
participate.
Eesha and Negi suffered defeats in their Aeroflot debut going down to
Oleg Chebotarev of Russia and Josep Manuel Lopez Martinez of Spain
respectively.
Also losing his opening encounter was GM norm aspirant S Kidambi who
could not hold his nerves against Ashot Nadanian of Armenia while GM
Tejas Bakre kicked off with a safe draw with Lev Pevzner of Russia.
In the ‘B’ group, lone Indian IM Dinesh Kumar Sharma drew his game
with Konstantin Kostin of Russia.
Sasikiran played a fine game as black against Tseshkovsky, but the
60-year old proved a tough nut to crack with white pieces against the
Caro Kann defence.
Gaining a balanced middle game without much effort, Sasikiran invited
complications but found Tseshkovsky at guard and the exchanges of
pieces led to a equal middle game. However, the Russian fell under
time pressure and eventually lost on time when only a few pieces
remained on board.
Ganguly showed his deep opening preparation and gave no leverage to
Radjabov who had beaten World’s top rated Garry Kasparov a couple of
years back during the Linares tournament.
Playing black, Ganguly faced the Ruy Lopez closed variation and
attained a level position without much ado.
Radjabov exchanged a couple of minor pieces early but got nothing
before splitting the point after 22 moves.
In other important games of the day, former champion Viktor Bologan
of Moldova did a class act in cruising past Alexander Ivanov while
Alexander Galkin held Armenian Levon Aronian to an easy draw.
Results: Dmitry Jakovenko (Rus) lost to Etienne Bacrot (Fra); Vassily
Ivanchuk (Ukr) beat Alexander Riazantsev (Rus); Solak Dragon (SCG)
drew with Ruslan Ponomariov (Ukr); Vladimir Akopian (Arm) beat Semen
Dvoirys (Rus); Alexander Galkin (Rus) drew with Levon Aronian (Arm);
Viktor Bologan (Mda) beat Alexander Ivanov (Usa); Konstantin Sakaev
(Rus) beat Alexander Lastin (Rus); Teimour Radjabov (Aze) drew with
Surya Shekhar Ganguly; Vitaly Tsheshkovsky (Rus) lost to Krishnan
Sasikiran; Bu Xiangzhi (Chn) drew with Sandipan Chanda
‘A2’: Pavel Maletin (Rus) drew with Sergej Dyachkov (Rus); Ekaterina
Kovalevskaya (Rus) drew with Ruslan Scherbakov (Rus); Natalia Zhukova
(Ukr) drew with Alexander Goloshchapov (Ukr); Lev Pevzner (Rus) drew
with Tejas Bakre; Ashot Nadanian (Arm) beat S Kidambi; Oleg
Chebotarev (Rus) beat Eesha Karvade; Tania Sachdev beat Evgenij
Kalegin (Rus); Josep Manuel Lopez Martinez (Esp) beat Parimarjan
Negi.
‘B’: A Goryachev (Rus) lost to Harmen Jonkman (Ned); Anton Kuzin
(Rus) beat Dmitry Petukhov (Rus); Dinesh Kumar Sharma drew with
Konstantin Kostin (Rus).