Sandipan continues good show

Holding Grandmaster Bodgan Lalic of England to a draw, International Master Sandipan Chanda continued his good show in the seventh round of the Ubeda international open chess tournament in Ubeda (Spain) on Saturday.

Chanda held Grandmaster Lalic to a draw in 35 moves from the white side of the Pelican defence. After a flurry of theoretical moves from players, the Grandmaster offered a draw. To his surprise, Chanda declined the offer in pursuit of a win.

However, Black forced a draw by repeatedly attacking the white Queen, caught in enemy territory.

IM R B Ramesh scored a smooth victory over IM Hassan Sayed of Egypt. Facing the French defence, Ramesh chose the Tarrasch variation and went on the offensive right from the opening. He sacrificed a pawn to secure the advantage, but went after Black's Queenside pawns, thereby losing the valuable tempo.

In the meantime, Black managed to create counter-play on the Kingside and put White in the defensive. Ramesh then correctly forced the exchange of queens to win the game in a Rook and pawn endgame.

Dinesh Kumar Sharma was the first to register a win. He defeated Spanish IM Reinaldo Castineira in just 18 moves. Playing with Black pieces in a Scotch opening, Sharma came up with a good penetrating Knight move on the Kingside to startle his opponent. In trying to prevent a possible 'perpetual checks', white blundered to lose a piece and the game quickly.

C S Gokhale too beat his higher-rated rival IM Olli Salmensu of Finland, though in a lengthy battle which commenced with Reti opening. Gokhale struck in the centre to win a pawn. Then he methodically deprived the black pieces of good squares. Black, who was forced to surrender a piece, resigned the game.

IWM Aarthie Ramaswamy scored an upset victory over IM Candela Perez of Spain. Playing the King's Indian defence with Black pieces, Aarthie encountered the Petrosian system.

After an initial error of allowing the light square Bishop to be exchanged, she launched a strong attack on the King side. With both players coming under time pressure, the fight turned out to be exciting with Black finally coming out on the top by winning a piece.

Visweswaran defeated Frank of Belgium with white pieces in an irregular opening. Black voluntarily allowed his position to be cramped in the opening. After a bit of shuffling pieces on base ranks, Black tried to give more scope for pieces through a pawn sacrifice. However, he had to forego another pawn and the game in view of an inevitable checkmate on the 36th move.

IM-elect Rahul Shetty and Sriram Jha suffered defeats against IM Ibrahim Lalib of Egypt and IM Sergei Simonenko of Turkmenistan respectively. Jha won a piece from the white side of the Grunfeld defence. But Black obtained compensation in the form of pawns and good counter-play, which he converted into a winning advantage.

Important results: IM Sandipan Chanda (4) drew with GM B Lalic (4); IM R B Ramesh (4) beat S Hassan (3); Siram Jha (3) Sergei Simonenko (4) Reinaldo Castineira (3) lost to D K Sharma (4) I Labib (4) Rahul Shetty (3); C S Gokhale (3.5) beat Olli Salmensu (2.5); J Candela Perez (2.5) lost to R Aarthie (3.5); K Visweswaran (3) beat A Frank (2)

UNI