The Hindu : Sport / Chess : Rathnakaran, Barua suffer defeats

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Thursday, Mar 01, 2007
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Rathnakaran, Barua suffer defeats

Special Correspondent

KOLKATA: K. Rathnakaran and Dibyendu Barua suffered reverses, on a day when draws were aplenty, in the fourth round of the second Kolkata Open international chess tournament at the Gorky Sadan here on Wednesday.

The third board game saw untitled Rathnakaran employing the closed variation against the Sicilian defence of Super GM Darmen Sadvakasov of Kazakhstan. The Indian played without a plan and was crushed on the queenside by the former World junior champion.

GM Dibyendu Barua lost to G.N. Gopal. On the top board, Super GM Sergei Tiviakov of The Netherlands played his favourite Sveshnikov variation against the Sicilian defence of GM Tigran Petrosian of Armenia and the two signed the peace treaty after 29 moves.

Harika withdraws

WGM Dronavalli Harika withdrew from the tournament after falling ill and left for home. Her opponent IM Sundararajan Kidambi got the walkover to join the leaders with 3.5 points.

Everybody's attention, however, was on the seventh board where IM D.P. Singh was up against Arghyadip Das. The Chess Players' Association of India had complained to the chief arbiter that Singh could be using unfair means. Singh was checked with a metal detector and also by an ENT specialist, but the player came clean.

Important results (Indians, unless mentioned): S. Tiviakov (Ned) (3.5) drew with T. Petrosian (Arm) (3.5); D. Komarov (Ukr) (3) drew with A. Greenfeld (Isr) (3.5); K. Rathnakaran (2.5) lost to D. Sadvakasov (Kaz) (3.5); E. Hossain (Ban) (3) drew with S. Jha (3); D. Harika (2.5) forfeited against S. Kidambi (3.5); S. Shukhrat (Uzb) (3.5) bt S. Satyapragyan (2.5); D.P. Singh (3) bt A. Das (2.5); S. Roy Chowdhury (2.5) drew with A. Kunte (2.5); S. P. Sethuraman (3) bt A. Fominyh (Rus) (2); R. Bandopadhyay (2.5) drew with J. D. Chakkravarthy (2.5); D. Barua (2) lost to G.N. Gopal (3).

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