Sasikiran, Harikrishna back
in the reckoning

Krishnan Sasikiran and Pendyala Harikrishna shot back into the reckoning for top honours with resounding victories over Grandmasters Gennadi Gutman of Ukraine and Murey Jacob of Israel in the eighth and penultimate round of the Czech Grandmaster Open chess tournament in Pardubice.

GM Zbynek Hracek of Czech Republic played a draw with second seed GM Macieja Bartlomiej of Poland and was joined by GM Peter Acs of Hungary and GM Dimitry Jakovenko of Russia at the top of the table on 6.5 points each.

Sixteen players including Sasikiran and Harikrishna follow the three leaders with six points each, and Sasikiran is well-placed to eclipse one leader (Jakovenko) who he plays in the final round.

GM Dibyendu Barua and double GM norm holder Surya Shekhar Ganguly have 5.5 points apiece alongside 29 others.

It was a fine display of positional chess from National champion Sasikiran, who played white against Gutman. In a King's Indian defence game, Sasikiran employed the Classical set up and went for a relatively new plan that caught Gutman off guard. With slow but effective deployment of pieces Sasikiran tightened the noose and crashed through Gutman's defences on the queen side first with his queen penetration and then by guiding his rook on the queen file.

Gutman was forced to part with a pawn but his counter play bid never materialised. Sasikiran put the final nail in the coffin with a tactical stroke that won him further material and the game in just 37 moves.

Sixteen-year-old Harikrishna opened with the Petroff defence with black pieces for the first time in his career and there were no signs of unfamiliarity with the new position (only Jacob had it) with his newfound love for one of the side variations.

As the game progressed Harikrishna castled on the queenside and maintained the dynamic balance despite the exchange of a few minor pieces.

Looking to ease some tension, Jacob traded all the minor pieces but was saddled with a weak queenside pawn structure and an exposed king in the process. Harikrishna completed the formalities of winning in style (winning a pawn and then forcing the game in to a rooks and pawns endgame where his pawn majority on the queenside proved decisive). Jacob called it a day after 44 moves.

Ganguly went down to Peter Acs. Playing the Glek variation for the third time with white pieces Ganguly suffered his first loss in the tournament. Peter Acs displayed top form in the endgame to turn out victorious after an interesting middlegame duel between the two. The game lasted 44 moves.

Barua gave an endgame lesson to International Master Vladimir Shushpanov of Russia. Playing white Barua fell into a well-known opening trap that gave Shushpanov an easy equality. However, after the trade of Queens on the 16th move, Shushpanov went awry with his planning and allowed Barua to seize the initiative with his queen side pawn majority. Playing energetically once on top, Barua clinched the issue in 54 moves.