press trust of india
Gibraltar, Feb 3: Padmini Rout maintained her fine form to script the third victory, while Debashis Das hold his opponent in the seventh round of the Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival here Tuesday.
Padmini (5) outwitted compatriot Sandipan Chanda (4), while Debashis Das (4.5) also fought well to hold a higher rated Romain Edouard (4.5) of France.
Former Asian champion P Harikrishna came up with a resourceful attack to down Anna Muzychuk of Slovenia. Harikrishna expectedly emerged as the best Indian performer at the business end of the tournament, taking his tally to 5.5 points out of a possible seven and with just three rounds to go, the Indian has his task cut out.
At the top of the table, Hikaru Nakamura’s winning streak was halted by David Howell of England. Harikrishna stands in the next bunch of players with 5.5 points and he has elite company in Yifan Hou, the reigning women’s world champion. The other Indians lost their way in this round and it would be hard work all over again for the likes of B Adhiban, Sethuraman and M R Lalith Babu. Adhiban was outdone by Naroditsky.
For the first time in the tournament, Adhiban was found wanting on preparation as well as form, as the Indian went for a rather lacklustre variation leading to complex position with white pieces. Naroditsky displayed his best tactical acumen in flirting with wild complexities that ensued and the American won two pawns when the dust subsided
National champion Sethuraman also suffered a loss against Dmitry Jakovenko of Russia, while M R Lalith Babu could not get half point in his game against Maxim Rodshtein of Israel. While it does not mean the end of the road for these Indians in the tournament, they will certainly need a flourish in the last three games to make an impact.
The day belonged to Harikrishna, who came up with some inspired display with his white pieces. Gaining the development advantage, the Andhra-based came up with a unique sacrifice by giving up his rook for a minor piece and thereafter it was a sustained attack that did the trick.
