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Saravanan, Sasikaran on a roll in Spain

Seventeen year old International Master K Sasikiran scored a quick win over fellow Indian V Saravanan and jumped to 6 points at the end of the 7th round of the international chess tournament at Benasque, Spain, on Monday.

From the white side of a Caro-Kann Defence Advance Variation game, Saravanan handled the opening poorly and allowed good squares for his opponent's pieces. Saravanan further blundered on move 13, an exchange, and the game ended on 21 moves. Saravanan remains on 5 points after the seventh round.

Neelotpal Das (4.5) could not repeat his result of the previous tournament against Grandmaster Vlastimil Jansa and ended up losing to the veteran while, on the adjacent board, his Goodricke Academy mate Sandipan Chandra (5) put up a sturdy defence in a queen and pawn endgane, drawing against the highly-rated international master Cosma.

One of the most beautiful games of the day was played by IM P Konguvel (5.5), who defeated Martin Martinez of Spain. Konguvel's deep knowledge of the Dragon came in handy while conducting an attractive sacrificial attack on the opponent's king with white pieces. He made a pretty queen sacrifice and finished the game in 31 moves.

Roktin Bondyopadhay (5) came back into the reckoning with a smooth win over Sanpedro Karen, while Rahul Shetty (4.5) got a walk-over from Bailo Santiago.

In the lead are GMs Elizbar Ubilava, Georg Georgadze and Alexey Kuzmin, all of whom have 6.5 points apiece. Sasikaran is just .5 point behind.

Earlier story: Sixth round results:

International Master K Sasikaran easily disposed of the lowly rated Florian Handke of Germany, to move to five points after six rounds of the Benasque Open international chess tournament.

Compatriot V Saravanan held French grandmaster Manuel Apicella to a draw, to join Sasikaran on five points. The two Indians are now positioned just half a point behind the tournament leaders.

Saravanan adopted the Najdorf variation of the Sicilian defence, which later converted into the Dragon. Precision play in the middle of the board saw the Indain gain a slight advantage when he forced his opponent to weaken the white pawn on ’d5’. Apicella found the right defensive responses, and the game ended in a minor pieces ending for the inevitable draw.

The superb run of Neepotpal Das, however, was ended by Russian Grandmaster Alexey Kuzmin. Neelotpal attempted the exchange variation of the Ruy Lopez, but blundered by opening up his centre with a pawn push to ‘d4’. A rather unwise capture on the ’f3’ square took his pawn out of the centre and paved the way for an irresistible mating attack, Neelotpal (4.5 points in six rounds) giving up the struggle on move 28.

Sandipan Chanda and IM P Konguvel also moved to 4.5 points after six rounds, with fluent wins over Abril Avellanas and Borrego Mata respectively.

Grandmasters Granda Zuriga, Georgi Georgadze, Cifuentes Parada, Alexey Kuzmin, Elizbar Ubilava, Milos Pavlovic and Stuart Conquest are on joint lead with 5.5 points.