Indians slip to second position

Indian players slipped in the leaderboard to second position after four rounds of play in the 89th British Chess championship held at the English Riviera centre, Torquay, on Thursday.

GM Peter Wells and IM Pert Nicholas of England share the the lead with 3.5 points apiece.

Only three Indians, GM P Harikrishna, IM R B Ramesh and IM Sandipan Chanda posted fluent wins. While six lost and the remaining drew their games. Seven more rounds remain in the championship, with a rest day on Sunday.

On the top board, the two GMs from India Sasikiran and Koneru Humpy battled it out to a draw in 44 moves. Playing black against the Queens Gambit, Humpy was in a slightly inferior position, but Sasikiran could not convert the advantage into a win. Harikrishna and Australia's Alexander Wohl played an irregular opening and Hari created a past pawn.

Sandipan Chanda outwitted S Meenakshi the Caro Kann defence employed by the latter. Banking on the opening advantage he had, Sandipan launched a heavy attack to gain a point in 28 moves.

R B Ramesh played well in his victory over John Wheeler of England. Sasikiran, Humpy, Harikrishna, Sandipan and Ramesh along with GMs Abhijit Kunte and Dibyendu Barua who drew their games against the defending champion Joseph Gallagher and Stewart Haslinger of England respectively have 3.0 points each.

S Ganguly accepted the Queens Gambit by the leader Nicholas Pert and both followed the Anand-Kramnik game played recently.

Nicholas made a brilliant pawn sacrifice and wiped out Ganguly's king side pawns. Down two pawns down, Ganguly resigned on the 30th move.

IWM Swati Ghate squandered the winning chances with two connected a and b pawns, queen and knight against queen and bishop of IM Paul Littlewood of England and had to be satisfied with only half a point. On the second board, GMs Jonathan Speelman and Chris Ward agreed to a formal 9-move draw.

Gowri Shankar of India is clashing with the Hong Kong girl Anya Corke for the British title in the final round of the U-11 category. Both have secured 5.5 points in six rounds. Adhav Dhaval of India is trailing by half point.

Earlier reports:
Round 3: Humpy wins; emerges joint leader
Round 2: Sasikiran emerges joint leader
Round 1: Sasikiran begins on winning note

Results:
Round 4

Bd  WHITE                      Result  BLACK                          PIN
  1 SASIKIRAN,Krishnan    (2½)  ½ - ½  KONERU,Humpy          (2½)    1  20
  2 WARD,Chris G          (2½)  ½ - ½  SPEELMAN,Jon          (2½)   17   2
  3 PERT,Nicholas         (2½)  1 - 0  GANGULY,Sura Sekhar   (2½)   22  12
  4 KUNTE,Abhijit         (2½)  ½ - ½  GALLAGHER,Joseph G    (2½)   19  14
  5 BARUA,Dibyendu        (2½)  ½ - ½  HASLINGER,Stewart G   (2½)    7  41
  6 LANE,Gary             (2)   0 - 1  WELLS,Peter           (2½)   21  18
  7 HARIKRISHNA,Pentala   (2)   1 - 0  WOHL,Aleksander H     (2)     3  25
  8 KNOTT,Simon JB        (2)   ½ - ½  ROWSON,Jonathan       (2)    30   4
  9 EMMS,John M           (2)   1 - 0  LEE,Graham            (2)     5  32
 10 DEVEREAUX,Maxim L     (2)   0 - 1  MCSHANE,Luke J        (2)    37   6

 11 TAN,Desmond           (2)   ½ - ½  LALIC,Bogdan          (2)    44   8
 12 FLEAR,Glenn C.        (2)   ½ - ½  MUIR,Andrew J.        (2)     9  43
 13 TURNER,Matthew J      (2)   1 - 0  RICHARDS,Heather      (2)    13  46
 14 SUMMERSCALE,Aaron     (2)   1 - 0  THIPSAY,Bhagyashree   (2)    15  51
 15 SANDIPAN,Chandra      (2)   1 - 0  MEENAKSHI,Subbaraman  (2)    16  49
 16 WHEELER,John F.       (2)   0 - 1  RAMESH,R.B            (2)    63  23
 17 NIXON,Thomas CM       (2)   0 - 1  WILLIAMS,Simon K      (2)    80  24
 18 MASON,Don             (1½)  0 - 1  HEBDEN,Mark           (1½)   50  10
 19 GORMALLY,Daniel       (1½)  1 - 0  D'COSTA,Lorin         (1½)   11  54
 20 LITTLEWOOD,Paul E.    (1½)  ½ - ½  GHATE,Swati           (1½)   26  64

 21 HUTCHINSON,Paul A.    (1½)  1 - 0  VIJAYALAKSHMI,Subbara (1½)   55  27
 22 MCDONALD,Neil         (1½)  ½ - ½  BUCKLEY,Simon         (1½)   28  61
 23 BERRY,Neil M          (1½)  ½ - ½  WALL,Gavin            (1½)   53  31
 24 PERT,Richard          (1½)  1 - 0  GRANT,Jonathan        (1½)   33  74
 25 SIMPSON,James         (1½)  1 - 0  SHERWIN,James         (1½)   60  34
 26 HANLEY,Craig          (1½)  ½ - ½  WOODWARD,Timothy      (1½)   35  72
 27 JONES,Gawain C        (1½)  ½ - ½  SOWRAY,Peter          (1½)   62  36
 28 SNAPE,Ian L           (1½)  0 - 1  COLLINS,Sam           (1½)   73  38
 29 HUTCHINSON,Norman     (1½)  1 - 0  EAMES,Robert          (1½)   88  40
 30 RAMSAWAMY,Aarthie     (1½)  ½ - ½  COOTE,Trevor D.       (1½)   45  91

 31 LEDGER,Dave J         (1½)  ½ - ½  RUDD,Jack             (1½)   47  87
 32 HARBORNE,Matthew J    (1½)  0 - 1  EVANS-QUEK,Suan Shiau (1½)   96  48
 33 MUTTON,Jonathan B     (1)   ½ - ½  SARAVANAN,Venkatachal (1)    71  29
 34 COX,John              (1)   1 - 0  MARTYN,Rafe           (1)    39  75
 35 BUCKLEY,Melanie       (1)   0 - 1  WEBB,Laurence         (1)    81  52
 36 SHAW,David A          (1)   1 - 0  BIGG,Andrew J         (1)    79  57
 37 WU,Li                 (1)   ½ - ½  THOMAS,Nicholas       (1)    86  58
 38 GOLDBERG,Jeff         (1)   1 - 0  TRENT,Lawrence        (1)    90  59
 39 JONES,Richard S.      (1)   1 - 0  BURNETT,Jim           (1)    65  76
 40 ADDISON,Bret C        (1)   1 - 0  DOUGLAS,Timothy       (1)    68  82

 41 TATLOW,Stephen        (1)   0 - 1  DORRINGTON,Christophe (1)    92  69
 42 TAYLOR,Robert M.      (½)   0 - 1  WILLMOTH,Robert       (1)    78  77
 43 EVANS-QUEK,Debbie     (½)   1 - 0  LYELL,Mark            (½)    89  56
 44 WHITE,Ian R.          (½)   0 - 1  TAYLOR,Peter P.       (½)    93  66
 45 DHAR-BARUA,Saheli     (½)   0 - 1  ASHTON,Adam           (½)    67  85
 46 HOWELL,David W        (½)   1 - 0  MCMASTER,Richard      (½)    70  95
 47 GREGORY,Stephen J     (0)   1 - 0  TRUMAN,Richard G.     (0)    83  94