Athens of the East 1st International Grandmaster Chess Tournament, Madurai
Grandmaster MR Venkatesh of PSPB emerged sole leader with five points after five rounds of the Athens of the East 1st International Grandmaster Chess Tournament, organised by Ananthi Chess Academy at Poppys Hotel Madurai, today. Top seeded GM Abhijeet Gupta of PSPB and international master P Konguvel also of PSPB are on the second spot with 4.5 points each.
The Sicilian defence employed by the international master Sayantan Das of Kolkata turned out to be a nightmare for him, as his opponent Venkatesh overpowered him in 36 moves. On his 24th turn Venkatesh sacrificed his rook for the knight and got back the exchange after a few moves, gaining a pawn in the process. With two extra pawns, Venkatesh won the game comfortably in 37 moves.
In the Kings Indian defence by WGM Kiran Manisha Mohanty of Orissa, Abhijeet Gupta wisely chose to open the king side gaining a rook for the loss of a bishop. After exchanging the queen within five more moves, he combined his two rooks forcing Kiran to lose her bishop. Kiran did not hesitate to resign immediately.
Though Ram S Krishnan of BSNL won the exchange on the 31st move of a sharp McCutcheon variation of the French defence, it did not deter his opponent, the second seeded Russian grandmaster Boris Savchenco. Boris had two pawns in compensation towards the end game, which helped him to win the game in 55 moves.
GM Masoud of Iran lost to IM Konguvel P
The checkmate in one move for the Iranian grandmaster Masoud Masedhpournever happened, as his opponent International master P Konguvel of PSPB made a couple of forced good moves to become the victor. Two more international masters S Nitin of Railways and VAV Rajesh of Chennai held the higher rated GMs Pavel Smirnov of Russia and Rodrigo Vasquez Shroeder of Chile respectively.
The “C”Category tournament for players having rating less than 1600 was inaugurated today by Sri VVR Raj Satyen, President Tamil Nadu Basketball Association. Five hundred and fourteen players from various states are participating in the event which carries a prize money of ten lakh rupees.
Shri. VVR Raj Satyen, President Tamil Nadu Basketball Association inaugurated the C Category tournament
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