Short upset, Liem takes lead

Short upset, Liem takes lead
DNA Correspondent
Tuesday, September 8, 2009 2:56 IST

Mumbai: Grandmaster Li Quang Liem shot into the sole lead after the seventh round at the 4th Kolkata Open Grandmaster Chess tournament, being held at Alekhine Chess Club. He defeated local Grandmaster Surya Sekhar Ganguly from an inferior position and is now sitting pretty, atop the heap.

The Vietnamese employed the Caro-Kann Defence and Surya was on the offensive from the beginning slowly building a position of strength. He however got into acute time trouble and blundered away a couple of pawns after which it was all over.

GM Sandipan Chanda and Viktor Laznicka of the Czech Republic, who faced off on the top board, could not break their deadlock even though the Indian GM defended an inferior position throughout the game. Both of them are in the second position along with GM Anton Filippov of Uzbekistan.

Filippov shocked Nigel Short of England from the black side of a Giuoco Piano opening. The Englishman tried the sharp Evans gambit and the Uzbek player gobbled up the pawn and defended coolly.

Short then gave up a couple more pawns on the queenside in his bid for an all out attack on the king but he could not succeed in penetrating his opponent’s defenses and had to eventually resign.

Top board results: GM Viktor Laznicka (5.5) drew GM Sandipan Chanda (5.5); GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly (4.5) lost to GM Le Quang Liem (6); GM Nigel Short (4.5) lost to GM Anton Filippov (5.5); IM B Adhiban (5) drew GM Parimarjan Negi (5); GM Mikheil Mchedlishvili (5) drew GM Eltaj Safarli (5); GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (5) bt GM M Chandran (4.5); GM Ni Hua (4) lost to GM R Khusnutdinov (5); GM E Hossain(4) lost to GM E Postny (5); GM Aleksej Aleksandrov (5) bt IM Deep Sengupta (4); GM Rauf Mamedov (5) bt FM Vidit Santosh Gujrathi (4).

Source: http://www.dnaindia.com