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Indians do well at Andorra chess meet

Seventh-seeded grandmaster Alexey Kuzmin of Russia won the Andorra Open chess tournament, at Andorra.

India's Sasikiran defeated international master Hauchard of France to log 7 points and thus tie for the first place, while Neelotpal Das defeated grandmaster Stuart Conquest of UK, with black pieces, to score his second international master norm.

The two overnight joint leaders, Kuzmin and GN Tony Miles, drew in their own faceoff. Both reached 7 points, thus paving the way for all those playing on 6 pts to catch up with the other joint leader, GM Milos Pavlovic who could emerge as the clear winner in case he won. But Pavlovic lost to GM Lev Psakfris of Israel and thus set the stage for a four way tie if Sasikaran could win.

Facing the Nimzo Indian defence, Sasi played a masterly game. Having the knight on the commanding 'e4' square and with possession of the only open 'h' file, the Indian exhibited great positional skill and grit to outplay his opponent and actieve his best international result.

Having accounted for GM Jansa yesterday, Neelotpal faced GM Conquest, with the black pieces, in a Sicilian Dragon variation. Equalising the position in the opening, Neelotpal seized the initiative with original play when the GM overstretched, and went on to win the game.