Dhaka stops Rasht; Bhubaneswar back on joint lead

By Gopakumar

Bhubaneswar (29 Aug 17) :- Third seed Dhaka defeated top seed and overnight sole leader Rasht in the fifth round to provide an interesting twist to the Asian Cities Chess Championship at Kalinga Institute Industrial Technology.

For Dhaka, International Master Minhaz Uddian registered victory over Ali Faghirnavaz on second board and on third board Aminul Islam secured full point against Sadeh Shahin. Taibur Rahman held his higher seeded International Master rival Soozankar Amir Mohamad on fourth board to secure the winning margin for his team. On top board, Arash Tahbaz’s victory over Syed Mahfuzur Rahman only helped the Iranian team to reduce the victory margin of Bangladeshi team.

Meanwhile this crucial top board result helped KIIT Bhubanewar to catch up with leader Rasht with eight points after beating Kolkata in the fifth round. Swayams Mishra, Rakesh Kumar Jena and Kiran Manisha Mohanty scored full point against Sambrata Banerjee, Sonkalan Bharati and Ritabroto Ganguly, respectively while match between Utkal Ranjan Sahoo and Samrat Ghorai ended without decisive result to make the score line 3½ – ½ in favour of the hosts.

In other fifth round battles, Puri lost to Penang 1 -3 while Chinese Taipei defeated Dubai 2½ – 1½ and Alquds overcome KISS Bhuabaneswar with identical margin.

Important Results Round-5 :- Rasht (8) lost to Dhaka (7) 1½ – 2½ ; Kolkata (6) lost to KIIT Bhubaneswar (8) ½ – 3½ ; Puri (3) lost to Penang (7) 1 – 3; Chinese Taipei (6) beat Dubai (3) 2½-1½; Alquds (5) beat KISS Bhubaneswar (2) 2½-1½; Cuttack (1) drew with Muscat (4) 2 -2.