07th December 2007 

Himanshu Surges Ahead, Negi Shocked

The dream run of IM Himanshu Sharma continued in this tournament as added one more scalp in Bangaldeshi GM, Abdulla Al-Rakib in the 7 th round of the Parsvnath Commonwealth Chess Championship 2007 in progress here at Sirifort Sports Auditorium. With this win, Himanshu maintains the lead over the field by a margin of half-point with a score of 6½.

Al-Rakib, playing black, opted for a rarely played Bird's variation of the Ruy Lopez opening to surprise Himanshu. However, Himanshu maintained the balance. The players regularly exchanged pieces in the middle-game to reach a knight ending. The balance swung in favour of Himanshu as he had better placed Knight, which allowed him to win a pawn on move 38. Thereafter, it was just a matter of technique for him to clinch a full point on move 41.

On the 2nd board, top-seeded S.S. Ganguly opted to play safe against IM Kidambi and both players agreed for a draw in 16-moves only.

The 3rd board game between GM Parimarjan and IM K. Rathnakaran turned to be a good crowd puller. GM Parimarjan was in his elements today as he achieved complete command in the French defense game from the white side. With a knight sacrifice, he exposed Rathnakaran's king to create winning attack. Rathnakaran game back the material to stay in the game after which, Negi emerged better on the material count by move 34 however; disaster struck for him as he made some dubious moves to loosen his grip on the game. Rathnakaran utilized his two connected passers to force surrender of Negi. With this win Rathnakaran now occupies the 2 nd spot solely with 6 points while a pack of 16-players are on the 3rd spot with a score of 5½

While the game between Arun Prasad – Harika, Nisha Mohota – Ramesh, Praveen Thipsay – Lanka Ravi, Sriram Jha – Vikramadity Kamble ended in a draw, 2 nd seeded GM Gawain Jones redeemed himself with a win over Saptarshi Roy. The upset results of the day was the win of loss of untitled players - Shashikant Kutwal defeated GM Deepan Chakravarthy and Thej Kumar's impressive win over IM Venkatesh.

06th December 2007 

Himanshu Maintains Lead, Negi Survives Scare

Overnight sole leader, IM Himanshu Sharma maintained his lead at the end of the 6th round of the Parsvnath Commonwealth Chess Championship 2007 in progress here at Sirifort Sports Auditorium by drawing his game easily with IM Arun Prasad. In an uneventful game, neither players took the risk in the Slav defense game and both of them signed peace treaty in 22 moves.

On the 2nd board, GM Parimarjan survived a mighty scare against IM Vikramaditya Kamble to wriggle out a draw from the lost position to maintain his joint lead in the 2 nd position. In the English Opening game, Vikramaditya, playing white, was well prepared with the fresh ideas in this opening and came out with a beautiful pawn sacrifice on the 18th move to put Negi into real trouble. Negi was forced to give his Rook for Vikramaditya's Bishop on the 18 th move however, Vikramaditya made a mistake in the middle-game to bring the game on even keel. After the exchange of pieces, the players agreed for a draw as neither of could make any progress.

Top-seeded Surya Sekhar Ganguly bounced back into the 2nd point by beating GM Reefat Sattar of Bangladesh in the French defense game on the 3 rd board.

IM Alex Wohl of Australia continued his impressive performance by holding 3rd seeded Abhjit Kunte in a marathon game lasting 81 moves. Wohl had sacrificed an exchange to win two pawns but Kunte defended resolutely to draw the game. While GM Al-Rakib of Bangladesh prevailed over IM Mahmood Lodhi of Pakistan to push himself into the 2 nd position. A total of 13-players are now on 5 points and are sharing the 2nd spot.

The dream run of local hero Vaibhav Suri ended as he lost to WGM Nisha Mohota.

<--Back----Next -->