Thejkumar Gets GM Norm, Kransenow Assured of Title
By Praful Zaveri

Goregaon Sports Club.has proved to be a happy hunting ground for Karnataka's M.S. Thejkumar who has earned his 3^rd  GM norm at the end of round 10 in the ongoing LIC Mumbai Mayor's International Chess Tournament. Thejumar, who is not yet an IM, was pitted against 4 Grandmasters in the last 4 rounds and came out with flying colours by winning one, drawing two and losing just one to earn his well deserved norm. He drew his 10th round game easily with GM Abhijit Kunte to be in contention of one of the top prizes. Thejkumar had earned his 1st GM norm at the last Commonwealth Chess Championship at Delhi. The other Indian players to earn the IM norms are Ram Krishnan and B.T. Muralikrishnan.


Meanwhile, top-seeded Michael Kransenow of Poland was lucky to score a full point over GM Al-Rakib of Bangladesh to be assured of the title with a round to spare. Kransenkow now has a full point lead over his nearest rivals with a score of 9/10. In the Slav defense game, Kransenkow playing White, came out better in the opening stage but Al-Rakib consolidated his position in the middle-game and the game appeared to be heading towards a draw however; a mistake by Rakib allowed Kransenkow to score a full point.


2nd seeded GM Koneru Humpy, after a disappointment in the last two rounds, bounced back with a spirited victory over Arghyadip Das from the black side of the Italian game to move into the joint 2nd spot with Kunte, Thejkumar, Ziaur Rahman, Fillipov, Saidali Iuldachev, Anup Deshmukh and Ram S. Krishnan. 



The concluding round of this 11.00 Lakhs prize money tournament would be crucial for all these players to decide the honours.



Key Results of Round 10:

GM Krasenkow Michal 2624 POL 9 Beat 7½ GM Abdulla Al-Rakib 2514 BAN
Thejkumar M S 2414 IND 8 Beat 8 GM Kunte Abhijit 2547 IND
GM Rahman Ziaur 2511 BAN 8 Drew 8 GM Filippov Anton 2509 UZB
GM Iuldachev Saidali 2501 UZB 8 Beat 7½ GM Reefat Bin-Sattar 2487 BAN
Das Arghyadip 2393 IND 7 Lost to 8 GM Koneru Humpy 2603 IND
GM Macieja Bartlomiej 2599 POL 7½ Drew 7½ GM Bakre Tejas 2455 IND
IM Saptarshi Roy 2387 IND 7½ Drew 7½ GM Gagunashvili Merab 2553 GEO
IM Deshmukh Anup 2248 IND 8 Beat 7 IM Laxman R R 2488 IND
IM Arun Prasad S 2465 IND 7½ Drew 7½ IM Satyapragyan S 2410 IND
GM Safin Shukhrat 2481 UZB 6½ Lost to 8 Ram S Krishnan 2299 IND

Kransekow Maintains Lead

GM Michael Kransenkow Takes Lead

GM Shukrat Takes Sole Lead