The 2nd Kolkata International Grandmasters Chess Tournament is taking place from 15-24th March at the Indian Council For Cultural Relations, 9A Ho Chi Minh Sarani, Kolkata-71, India.
Top seed, Nigel Short of England and Surya Sekhar Ganguly of India surged ahead to lead with 5.5 points each after the completion of the 6th round of LIC International Grandmasters Tournament here at ICCR on Saturday.
Four players – Kirill Stupak, Lu Shanglei, Wang Chen and Shardul Gagare – are breathing down their neck on 5 points each. Three more rounds remain, in the meet, which is organised by Dibyendu Barua Chess Academy and Allsport Foundation.
GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly
The day however, belonged to eighteen year old IM Shardul Gagare, who upset GM M.R. Lalith Babu in an interesting encounter which arose from a Queen’s Indian defence. Shardul won the exchange on the 30th move, but Babu had compensation in the form of 3 pawns. Shardul later, effectively utilized both his rooks and won the pawns, after which Babu resigned.
IM Swapnil Dhopade, playing on the top board against Surya Sekhar Ganguly, opted for the Caro-Kan defence but lost a pawn on the 28th move. Though Surya’s extra pawn was doubled he had the advantage of a rook and a bishop against Dhopade’s rook and knight. Finally, Surya’s active pieces forced a mating net around Dhopade’s king.
Nigel Short won a piece on the 45th move against Dimitry Kokarev of Russia in the open variation of the Ruy Lopez by a neat combination after which he had little difficulty in winning the game a few moves later.
World Junior champion, Lu Shanglei of China won a piece against the Indian GM M. Shyam Sundar on the 33rd move in a Queen’s Gambit after which the latter continued for a few more moves before eventually reigning on the 43rd move.
In an all grandmasters clash Kirill Stupak of Belarus won the exchange against Petr Kostenko on the 23rd move in a Dutch Stonewall defence and later nursed his passed b-pawn to the queening square to force a win.
Round 6 video by Vijay Kumar