Amonatov snaps Karthikeyan’s winning run

It needed something special from top seed Farrukh Amonatov to end the winning streak of overnight leader M. Karthikeyan and surge ahead after the seventh round of the Delhi International Open chess tournament here on Friday.

The victory took Amonatov to 6.5 points and kept him half a point away from the trio of Karthikeyan, third seed Diptayan Ghosh and Ukrainian Vitaly Sivuk. Three rounds remain.

Playing with white pieces, Amanatov grabbed a pawn on the queenside on the 24th move after his king was dislodged from its home square on the 16th turn. This happened after Karthikeyan went ahead with a sequence of tactics that didn’t amount to much.

The Indian teenager also chose not to castle and soon thereafter, with the rooks off the boards, the outcome of the result depended on the minor piece-play. After 55 moves, it was the player from Tajikistan who had the last laugh.

Ghosh got the better of young N. R. Visakh in 53 moves on the second board while Sivuk overpowered compatriot Valeriy Neverov in 45 moves.

The results (Indians unless stated): Seventh round: Farrukh Amontov (Tjk, 6.5) bt M. Karthikeyan (6); Diptayan Ghosh (6) bt N.R. Visakh (5.5); Vitaly Sivuk (Ukr, 6) bt Valeriy Neverov (Ukr, 5); Nguyen Huynh Minh Huy (Vie, 5.5) drew with Adam Horvath (Hun, 5.5); Niranjan Navalgund (5.5) drew with Swayams Mishra (5.5); David Alberto (Ita, 5.5) bt S. Nitin (5); Sayantan Das (4.5) lost to S. L. Naryanan (5.5); Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury (5) drew with Adam Tukhaev (Ukr, 5); Andrei Deviatkin (Rus, 5) drew with Rakesh Kumar Jena (5); Attila Czebe Attila (Hun, 5.5) bt Arjun Erigaisi (4.5); Sahaj Grover (5.5) bt Sidhant Mohapatra (4.5); Marat Dzhumaev (Uzb, 5.5) bt Rahul Sangma (4.5); Niaz Murshed (Ban, 5.5) bt Spencer Masango (Zim, 4.5); Anup Deshmukh (4.5) lost to Saptarshi Roy (5.5); Pranav Shetty (5) drew with S. Ravi Teja (5.5).