A determined Sandipan Chanda held top-seeded Frenchman Etienne Bacrot, rated 2713, to a creditable draw in 32 moves but fellow Grandmasters K. Humpy and G. N. Gopal lost to joint leaders Michael Adams and Jan Gustaffson in the fifth round of the Gibtelecom Masters chess tournament in Gibraltar on Saturday.
Adams punished Humpy for an early error and won in 38 moves before Gustaffson overpowered Gopal in 50 moves.
Apart from Sandipan, two other Indians – D. Harika and V. Saravanan – also pulled off surprising draws against much higher rated rivals.
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Harika held third seed Spaniard Francisco Vallejo, rated 2705, in 38 moves while Saravanan drew seasoned Sweden’s Pia Cramling, rated 2528.
The results (fifth round, involving Indians):
Sandipan Chanda (4) drew with Etienne Bacrot (Fra, 4); Michael Adams (Eng, 4.5) bt K.Humpy (3.5); Jan Gustaffson (Ger, 4.5) bt G. N. Gopal (3.5); D. Harika (3.5) drew with Francisco Vallejo (Esp, 3.5); V. Saravanan (3.5) drew with Pia Cramling (Swe, 3.5); Eesha Karavade (3.5) bt Johan Henriksson (Swe, 2.5); Tania Sachdev (3) bt Hans Groffen (Ned, 2); Kruttika Nadig (2) lost to Roman Freuler (Sui, 2).
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