Indian Tigers Cruise into Lead

Indian Grand Masters won a crucial match in the 6th round yesterday and narrowed the lead against the Chinese counterpart, with the match point of 7 to 5.

On Board one, in an unusual Reti opening game, Aravindh Chithambaram got slightly better position from opening. However, he made an error on 25th move by placing his Rook on d3, which allowed GM Lu Shanglei excellent counter play by pushing his pawn to f5, Aarvindh, said later. On 25th move if he had played his Queen to g4 he would have retained initiative. Both the Grandmasters agreed to split point after 36th moves.

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On the second Board GM Aryan Chopra easily prevailed over GM Xu Xiangu. The Chinese Grandmaster opted for the Larsen system, against Kings Indian Defence of Aryan, Xiangyu blundered on 14th move and dropped two pawns in succession. The Indian GM made no mistake in pressing the advantage home in 33 moves.

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On the third Board, GM Murali Karthikeyan confronted the Solid Petroff Defence of Bai Jinshi, who easily equalised in the opening. However, Murali tried to go for win at any cost, by storming his King side pawns. Bai Jinshi defended very well, and after 33rd move, it appeared the Chinese GM was winning with an extra pawn. But Murali exchanged queens on right time to reach an ending with Rook and three pawns verses Rook & 4 pawns on same side. The game was drawn on the 55th move.

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The game between Xu Yinglun and Srinath Narayanan was a Semi-Slav game by transposition, where, Srinath’s excellent home preparation of the opening gave him a strong initiative. However, on 28th move, instead of the strong move Knight to f5, he erroneously played Kf3+. Which was a mistake. Later Srinath said that, he missed Rook c8 check on the 30th move which led to a forced draw after 36th move.

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Results of Sixth Round

China 2.5 – 1.5 India

w GM Aravindh, Chitahmbaram Vr. drew with GM Lu Shanglei
GM Aryan Chopra beat w GM Xu Xiangyu
w GM Karthikeyan Murali drew with GM Bai Jinshi
GM Narayanan Srinath drew with w GM Xu, Yinglun