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Indian chess players on a roll

Sandipan Chanda put up a great fight to hold Romanian grandmaster Mikhai Marin to a draw, while his compatriots M Sasikaran, V Saravanan and Neelotpal Das maintained their winning records in the 3rd round of the Benasque Open chess tournament.

Sandipan was in a slightly inferior position in the middle game from the black side of a Slav Defence, Exchange Variation. The game reached a complicated ending, with Sandipan an exchange down but with the advantage of a dangerous passed pawn on the 'E'file. The Romanian grandmaster missed a bet, allowing the Indian to push it to E2 in the hope of bringing the black king under a mating net, but Sandipan forced white to go for perpetual check, getting the draw out of what looked like a defeat.

Meanwhile, Saravanan, Sasikaran and Neelotpal all pulled off businesslike wins against lesser rated opponents, while IM Konguvel scored an attacking win over Martinez de Migual. From the white side of a Sicilian English Attack game, Konguvel made an exchange sacrifice to break through on his opponent's kingside, forcing checkmate in 33 moves.

Rahul Shetty went down fighting to GM Lev Psakhis of Israle. From the black side of a Rooshohimo variation of the Sicilian DEfence, Rahul unwisely exchanged queens during the middlegame, and was forced to defend an unpleasant position. He resigned on move 30, faced with the prospect of losing one more pawn.

Agencies