Yurtaev posts victory

V. V. Subrahmanyam

GUNTUR, APRIL 10. He refused an offer of draw with the hope of snatching a crucial win to be in the race to grab the coveted GM- norm.

But, D. V. Prasad suffered his second defeat in-a-row when he lost to GM Leonid Yurtaev in a first round game of the Chalapathi Grandmasters international chess tournament being held at Chalapathi Residential School here today.

This game was originally scheduled for the opening day but with the late arrival of Yurtaev it was put off to today, which was a rest day for the other players.

Much to Prasad's surprise, Yurtaev offered a truce even before the contest began. But, contrary to the image he gained in this edition, Prasad was in an aggressive and determined mood. ``There is no point in accepting a draw. I wanted to fight to the finish,'' he said later.

Prasad opted for e4 opening to which Yurtaev replied with Modern Defence. The Indian even introduced a novelty on 12th move - Be5 when he could have played Rc1\Nbb5, Bd2. But after the 17th move, Black started to equalise the position fairly comfortably. Though Prasad showed plenty of resilience to match his rival and looked at one stage to gain an upperhand when he played the 29th move - Qd2, he fumbled when he should not - playing the Rc2 on 42nd move soon after the first time control. For soon, he lost a pawn (N x b5) and virtually the game.

Later analysing the loss, Prasad admitted that he should have played Re2 or Ke3 instead of Kg2 on 38th move which also weakened his position.

Much to his chagrin, Yurtaev's pawn on the `h' file persistently posed a threat in the end-game and Prasad had to resign after 80 moves.

No doubt, dreams of Prasad, who is has an ELO rating of 2421 compared to his rival's 2536 and who definitely felt that this tournament was the best chance to get those invaluable nine points to achieve the GM title, were shattered by virtue of two consecutive games in which he looked in a fairly comfortable position.

The moves: (D. V. Prasad lost to Leonid Yurtaev): e4-g6; d4-Bg7; c3-d5; ed5-Qd5; Be3-Nf6; Bf3-Qd8; Ne2 0-0; 0-0 Nbd7; Bf4-c5; Na3- cd4; Cd4-Nb6; Be5-Nfd5; Rc1-Be6; Nb5-Qd7; Nc7-Rad8; Ne6-Qe6; Bg7- Kg7; Qb3-Rd7; Rfe1-Qd6; Nc3-Nc3; bc3-Rc7; a4-Nc4; Be2-Na5; Qb4- b6; Ba6-Rd8; Qb2-Qf6; g3-Rd6; Rcd1- Re6; Qd2-Re1; Re1-Qc6; Bb5- Nb3; Qb5-Nb3; Qg5-Qf6; Qe3-Na5; Qd3- Nb7; Re5-Nd6; c4-Nf5; c5-h5; Kg2-bc5; Rc5-Rb7; d5-Nd6; h4-Qe5; Rc2-Nb5; ab5-Rb5; Qh5-Qe4; Kg1- Qc2; Qc6-Qb1; Kg2-Qb4; Qa6-Qd4; Kg1-Qc5; Qa1-Kg8; Qab-Kf8; Qa1- Ke8; Qa4-Kf8; Qa1-f6; Qa6-Qb6; Qc8-Kf7; Qc4-Kg7; Qc6-Kf7; Qc4- Qd6; Qa4-a6; Qa5-f5; Kg2-f4; Kf3- fg3; fg3-Qf6; Kg2-Qb2; Kh3-Qe2; Qb6-Qe1; Kg2-a5; Qc6-Qe4; Kf2-a4; Qc5-Qd3; d6-Qd2; Kf3-Qd1; Kf2- ed6; Qc7-Ke6; Qc8-Kd5; Qg8-Kc5; Qg6-Qd4; Kg2-a3; Qc2-Kb4.

Tomorrow's pairings: Leonid Yurtaev vs V. Saravanan; Alexander Fominyh vs G. B. Prakash; Ildar Ibragimov vs Zia-ur-Rehman; D. V. Prasad vs K. Sasikiran; D. Barua vs Andrey Shariyazdanov; Abhijit Kunte vs Sandipan Chanda; Koneru Humpy vs Pravin Thipsay.

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