Abu Dhabi Masters chess: Three Indians share sixth spot

It was a better day for some of the stronger Indians in the fray

August 21, 2017 01:27 pm | Updated 01:54 pm IST - ABU DHABI

Abhijeet Gupta. File photo

Abhijeet Gupta. File photo

Abhimanyu Puranik, Aryan Chopra and N. R. Vignesh were among those sharing the sixth spot with five points after seven rounds of the Abu Dhabi Masters chess tournament here on Sunday.

On a day when UAE’s Salem Saleh joined overnight leader Egypt’s Amin Baseem in the lead at six points, Shardul Gagare slipped following a loss to top seed Nigel Short.

It was a better day for some of the stronger Indians in the fray. Abhijeet Gupta, after suffering three losses in the last four rounds, won to reach 3.5 points. Though S. P. Sethuraman suffered his second successive loss, national champion M. Karthikeyan, D. Harika, Aryan Chopra, Puranik, Sarin and Vignesh emerged victorious.

On the lower boards, Tania Sachdev maintained her sequence of winning the odd-numbered rounds to reach four points. Significantly, Vantika Agrawal stunned Eesha Karavade, who suffered her second straight loss.

Another youngster Al Muthaiah, rated 2292, continued to impress as he reached 4.5 points following a second straight victory and stretched his unbeaten run to six rounds, like International Master Rahul Sangma.

Important results (involving Indians):

Seventh round : Nigel Short (Eng, 5.5) bt Shardul Gagare (4.5); Tsegmed

Batchuluun (Mgl, 5) bt S. P. Sethuraman (4); Parham Maghsoodloo (Iri,

4) lost to Aryan Chopra (5); Aleksandar Indjic (Srb, 4) lost to

Abhimanyu Puranik (5); Rahul Sangma (4.5) drew with Ivan Rozum (Rus,

4.5); Bogdan-Daniel Deac (Rom, 4) lost to N. R. Vignesh (5); Dennis

Wagner (Ger, 4.5) bt Neelotpal Das (3.5); D. Harika (4.5) bt Aydin

Suleymanli (Aze, 3.5); Ahmad Asgarizadeh (Iri, 3.5) lost to Nihal

Sarin (4.5); Nguyen Anh Khoi (Vie, 3.5) lost to Al Muthaiah (4.5);

Sohan Phadke (3.5) lost to M. Karthikeyen (4); Vantika Agrawal (4) bt

Eesha Karavade (3); Tania Sachdev (4) bt Hari Madhavan (3); M.

Mahalakshmi (3) lost to Rishi Sardana (Aus, 4); Abhijeet Gupta (3.5)

bt Mithil Ajgaonkar (2.5); Kumar Gaurav (3.5) bt Morteza Mahjoob

Zardast (Iri, 2.5).

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.