Chennai Open: Popov beats Swapnil, five share lead
Jan 5, 2015
Top seed Grandmaster Popov Ivan (Russia) stopped tournament leader Swapnil Dhopade (India) and moved into shared lead at 6.5 points after the eighth round of the 7th Chennai International Open Grandmaster Chess Tournament at Nehru Stadium, Chennai here today.
Sharing the lead with Popov were the quartet viz., Dzhumaev Marat (Uzbekistan), Mozharov Mikhail (Russia), Swapnil S Dhopade, Ramnath Bhuvanesh R (both India), all at 6.5 points.
GM Popov Ivan (Russia)
Half a point behind the leaders at 6.0 points were Grandmasters Gasanov Eldar (Ukraine), Cruz Cristhian (Peru),Deepan Chakkravarthy J (India), and International Masters Cruz Jonathan (Peru) and Ravichandran Siddharth (India) respectively.
Popov Ivan faced the Caro-Kann against Swapnil Dhopade, and was aggressive from the word go. An early pawn sacrifice gave white the initiative and Popov held on to it with iron grip. Swapnil was saddled with four isolated pawns and had difficulty in co-ordinating his rook and knight. Popov swooped in when Swapnil slipped on 46th turn and finished the game with a nice tactic on 57th move.
International Master Ramnath Bhuvanesh (India) shares lead 6.5/8
Local star International Master Ravichandran Siddharth scored over higher rated Russian Grandmaster Evdokimov Alexander in 41 moves, keep on track a possible GM Norm.
Category “A” – Main Results Round 8 (Indians unless specified) :
Popov Ivan (Rus) 6.5 bt Swapnil S Dhopade 6.5, Mozharov Mikhail (Rus) 6.5 bt Cruz Jonathan (Per) 6, Gasanov Eldar (Ukr) 6 drew with Cruz Cristhian (Per) 6, Ramnath Bhuvanesh R 6.5 bt Karthikeyan Murali 5.5, Brunello Sabino (Ita) 5.5 drew with Rajesh VAV (5.5), Evdokimov Alexander A (Rus) 5 lost to Ravichandran Siddharth (6), Alberto David (Ita) 5 lost to Dzhumaev Marat (Uzb) 6.5, Dinesh K Sharma (5.5) drew with Nguyen Duc Hoa (Vie) 5.5, Valeriy Neverov (Ukr) 5.5 drew with Stany G A (5.5), Deepan Chakkravarthy J (6) bt Navin Kanna T U (5), Nguyen Van Huy (Vie) 5.5 drew with Visakh N R (5.5), Ravi Teja S (4.5) lost to Baryshpolets Andrey (Ukr) 5.5
R R Vasudevan
Press Officer
It’s getting tight.