Ganguly makes short work of Marat
In round 8, Grandmaster Surya Shekhar Ganguly beat overnight leader GM Marat Dzhumaev, reports Anupma Tripathi.
THE SPATE of upsets continued at the Parsvnath Open chess tournament. In round 8 on Friday, Grandmaster Surya Shekhar Ganguly beat overnight leader GM Marat Dzhumaev.
Playing with black pieces, International Master Abhijeet Gupta beat world champion Viswanathan Anand's former coach Elizbar Ubilava. "Though he played very well, he played a bit passive in the opening which led me to move and at one point all my pieces were active," remarked Gupta.
On being asked about the blunders that allowed Gupta to take plus positions, the reticent Ubilava said, "I was playing well initially, but I changed my plans in the middle and that was a wrong move. Nonetheless, Abhijeet played well."
In other matches, IM Roktim Bandyopadhyay beat GM Morteza Mahjoob, who had drawn with FIDE Master Rajesh V.A.V. (ELO 2188) in Round 7.
Grandmaster Sapar Batyrov lost to Ram Prakash (ELO 2281) while top seed Ghaem Maghami Ehsaan drew with IM Rathnakaran.
In a tough match, WGM Tania Sachdev lost to GM Igor Kurnosov. Playing white, Tania employed Grunfeld in the opening and put up a good fight but succumbed to time pressure. "I am still to analyze my mistakes, I don't know where I went wrong," said Tania.
In another crucial outing, Debashis Das (ELO 2279), who beat GM Nguyen Anh Dung, brightened his chances acquiring a IM norm. Das has collected 6.5 points so far.