Ram S Krishnan holds Grachev, Popov among leaders

Ram S Krishnan holds Grachev, Popov among leaders
By R.R.Vasudevan

Chennai based Ram S Krishnan (BSNL) held top seed Grandmaster Boris Grachev of Russia to a draw in the second round of the 8th Chennai Open International Grandmaster Chess tournament 2016 for Sakthi Group Dr N Mahalingam trophy, held at Tamil Nadu State Chess Association, Nehru Stadium, Chennai here today. In an interesting English game that lasted 29 moves, Ram S Krishnan surprised the Russian Grandmaster with his King march to the queenside. An effective blockade fetched the Indian a comfortable draw.

Sharing the lead with 2/2 score were GMs Ivan Popov, Mozharov Mikhail, Demchenkov Anton (all Russia), R R Laxman (India), Marat Dzhumaev (Uzbekistan), Neverov Valeriy, Sivuk Vitaly, Tukhaev Adam, Bernadskiy Vitaliy, Solodovnichenko Yuri (all Ukraine), Nguyen Huynh Minh Huy (Vietnam) among others.

Ram S Krishnan – GM Boris Grachev
1.Nf3 Nf6 2.c4 b6 3.d4 Bb7 4.Nc3 e6 5.a3 g6 6.d5 Bg7 7.e4 O-O 8.Be2 d6 9.O-O Nbd7 10.Be3 Qe7 11.h3 Nc5 12.Qc2 a5 13.Rad1 a4 14.Rfe1 Nfd7 15.Nd4 e5 16.Ndb5 Qd8 17.Bg4 Bc8 18.Bxd7 Bxd7 19.Bxc5 bxc5 20.Nxa4 f5 21.Nac3 f4 22.f3 Bf6 23.Ra1 Bh4 24.Red1 Rf7 25.Kf1 h5 26.Ke2 Qb8 27.Kd3 Qb6 28.Qe2 Rff8 29.Kc2 1/2-1/2

Round 2 Results (Indians unless specified) Ram S Krishnan (1.5) drew with Grachev Boris (Rus) 1.5, Popov Ivan (Rus) 2 bt Shreyansh Daklia (1), Demchenko Anton (Rus) 2 bt Phoobalan P (1), Hegde Ravi Gopal (1) lost to Solodovnichenko Yuri (Ukr) 2, Sivuk Vitaly (Ukr) 2 bt Sekar B, Hirthickkesh P R (1) lost to Mozharov Mikhail (Rus) 2, Ramanathan Balasubramaniam (1) lost to Tukhaev Adam (Ukr) 2, Bernadskiy Vitaly (Ukr) 2 bt Surendran N (1), Chakravarthi Reddy M (2) bt Gabrielian Artur (Rus) 1, Ernst Sipke (Ned) 1.5 drew with Vignesh B (1.5)