Sasikiran, Laznicka lead Calcutta

Sasikiran, Laznicka are joint leaders- Grandmasters meet set for an absorbing finish
BIPIN SHENOY

Calcutta: The Calcutta Open Grandmasters Chess tournament at Alekhine Chess Club is set for an absorbing finish on Wednesday morning. Top seed Krishnan Sasikiran and Viktor Laznicka of Czech Republic jointly share the lead with 7.5 points each after the penultimate round.

Laznicka, who meets world junior champion Adly Ahmed in the final round, however, is better placed in the tie break and a win would seal the title for him. Laznicka would be looking to settle scores against Adly Ahmed as he had lost to him in the world junior meet in October in Armenia.

Laznicka played yet another exciting game to overwhelm Koneru Humpy in a Catalan opening on Tuesday. Laznicka obtained a positional advantage from the opening and then went to win two pawns after which Humpy called it quits.

Sasikiran, who trampled GM Sandipan Chanda, is likely to go all out for a win against S. Arun Prasad. Playing with the black pieces, Sasikiran made most of the chances offered by Sandipan in a Sicilian defence and won the game by first giving up his rook for bishop and then making good use of his bishops against Sandipan’s weakened kingside.

The day, however, belonged to S. Arun Prasad, who completed his third and final GM norm by getting the better of GM Vladimir Dobrov of Russia. Arun will now have to increase his rating to 2500 to get the GM title.

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