Ramesh, Gokhale, Visweswaran shine

International Master R B Ramesh, C S Gokhale and K Visweswaran kept Indian hopes alive with facile victories in the eighth round of the Linares International Open chess tournament, on a day of mixed luck for the Indian camp.

IM Sandipan Chanda, Rahul Shetty and the lone Indian woman R Aarthie lost their games while D K Sharma and Sriram Jha split points with their rivals.

Overnight leader GM S Sulskis (2501) of Lithuania was held to a draw by GM Evgeny Najer of Russia but continued to lead the field with 6.5 points though now in the company of GM M Kobalija of Russia who defeated GM M Motylev.

Among the Indians, Ramesh has maximum 4.5 points from eight games with Sharma, Chanda and Visweswaran following at 4 points each.

Ramesh (2467), who lost his previous game against GM V Golod, played black black in a Sicilian Richter Rauzer variation and overcame a scare in the middlegame against I Tissir Mohammed (2362) to register a fine victory.

Tissir attacked Ramesh's king in the centre but the Indian counter-attacked the white king to checkmate his opponent after 29 moves.

Visweswaran (2289) played an enterprising game against unrated San Martin Ramos of Spain. Facing Alekhine defence, Visweswaran denied his opponent the right to castle and launched a vigorous attack after sacrificing a pawn.

Ramos missed the opportunity to force a draw and allowed white to checkmate him or lose the queen. Viswewswaran won on the 37th move.

Playing with black pieces, Gokhale (2326) faced the Ruy Lopez center attack variation from Bentario Manadicto (2105) of Spain and got a comfortable position after the Spaniard seemed lost in the opening.

Gokhale, who drew his seventh round game with Hernandez Montalvo, then went for the exchange of queens and brought his king forward all the way to c2 square. Manadicto found himself about to lose all the pawns on the queenside and resigned on the 41st move. Gokhale has 3.5 points from eight matches.

D K Sharma (2355) obtained a slight edge with white pieces from a Queens Indian Defence Petrosian system against IM Mathis Roeder from Germany. The game transposed into a minor pieces ending and Sharma slowly outplayed his experienced opponent to obtain a winning position but was short of time on his clock.

He repeated the moves to gain time but to his shock his opponent claimed a 3-time repetition and the game was drawn in 38 moves. Sharma had won his seventh round game against A Moreno.

Sriram Jha (2412) was involved in a draw with lowly rated Alcazar Jimenez of Spain in a Sicilian Paulsen variation.

Jha, playing black, obtained equality easily and after regular exchange of pieces the game meandered towards a tame draw. Jha, who lost his previous game against E Vovsha, has 2.5 points.

Rahul Shetty (2325) played black in the Nimzo Indian defence against IM Mateo Roman (2387) and complicated things early in the opening.

From a comfortable position, Shetty, who beat IM Karatorossian in the previous game, allowed Ramon to capture the 'b' file and enter the black position along the 8th rank.

He was left a mute spectator as Ramon created a mating attack around his king and had to resign to remain on 3.5 points.

IWM Aarthie faced yet another Grandmaster, Mark Tseitlin of Israel, and opted for the Velimirovic attack with white pieces. The position remained complicated for a long time and Aarthie mishandled a bishop move to allow Tseitlin launch a dangerous attack on her king from the queenside.

Aarthie, who lost her previous match too, lost a piece and gave up on the 35th move. She remained with three points.

GM-norm holder Sandipan Chanda (2341) got a pleasant position from the opening against Jobava (2518) of Georgia. In a Sicilian Najdorf variation, Chanda placed his knight on the c6 square which could not be challenged by his opponent.

But he wrongly went for a kingside attack and tried to win an exchange which backfired and allowed his opponent to attack his king with oppositie coloured bishops.

Chanda could not stop the black 'e' pawn from advancing and resigned on the 41st move.

Important Results: Evgeny Najer (6) drew with S Sulskis (6.5); M Motylev (5.5) lost to M Kobalija (6.5); Sandipan Chanda (4) lost B Jobava (5); M Tissir (3.5) lost R B Ramesh (4); D K Sharma (4) drew Mathias Roeder (4); K Visweswaran (4) bt San Martin Ramos (3); M Benedicto (3.5) lost C S Gokhale (3.5); L Mateo (4.5) bt Rahul Shetty (3.5); R Aarthie (3) lost M Tseitlin (4); Alcazar Jiminez (3) drew Sriram Jha (3).