IM Lalith Babu shocks GM Zubarev, Maxim Turov in sole lead

On a day with mixed results on the top boards IM Norm aspirant R Siddharth lost his game against Russian GM Maxim Turov in the 6th round of Chennai Open 2010 an International Grandmaster Open Chess Tournament , being held at the Multipurpose Indoor stadium at Chennai. The ten days mega event is organized by the Sports Promotion Foundation. Playing the white side Siddharth chose an offbeat line and castled on the longside to attack. Turov exploited the weak pawns of white and exchanged pieces at regular intervals to enter a favourable rook ending. The game ended in Turov’s favour in 58 moves. Turov takes the sole lead with 6.0 pts followed by GM’s Kryakvin of Russia & Deepan Chakkravarthy of India, IM Lalith Babu with 5.5 pts apiece are in the joint second spot.

In a game between Russian GM’s Kryakvin and Gutov, the better rated Kryakvin played a powerful game from Bishop opening to outplay his team mate. Kryakvin threatened black’s king with his Queen and rook. Further array of the minor pieces focussing the f6 and h6 squares resulted in white’ win in 33 moves.

IM Lalith Babu was impeccable in his victory over GM Alexander Zhubarev of Russia . From the white side of the Semi Slav variation Lalith won a pawn on the 34th move to get a comfortable position. In time pressure the Grandmaster tried to complicate the position by sacrificing a pawn on 38th move. Unperturbed Lalith neutralized threats and threatened to promote his b and h pawns simultaneously, to force resignation in 54 moves.

Orissa’s top youngster Anwesh Upadyaya held GM Kidambi to a creditable draw from the white side of the Caro Kann defense in 26 moves. GM Deepan Chakkravarthy joined the second spot with a facile win over IM Swapnil Dhopade in 31 moves. A local youngster by name M.Siddarth caused a mild flutter by beating IM Lim Yee Weng of Malaysia. With 5 more rounds to go the event is interestingly poised. Triple IM Norm Holder Arun Karthik held experienced Uzbek GM Iuldachev despite a piece down, but having extra pawns to show far. The game was so interesting with both players entering into acute time pressure. Arun a piece down scored a valuable half point with a tactical stalemate pattern in 77 moves.


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