Chanda, Ganguly maintain joint lead

Grandmasters Sandipan Chanda and Surya Shekhar Ganguly continued with their fine run and remained in joint lead on 3.5 points each after the conclusion of the fourth round of Gibtelecom Masters International Open chess tournament in Gibraltar on Saturday.

As many as 12 players remained half a point adrift of the two leaders, with 3 points each in their kitty. They were Russians Ernesto Inarkiev, Alexey Kuzmin and Alexei Dreev, Englishmen Nigel Short, Murray Chandler and Jonathan Speelman, Indian Grandmasters British Champion Abhijit Kunte, P Harikrishna and Dibyendu Barua, Joeseph Gallagher of Switzerland, Paul Motwani of Scotland and Bulgarian Antoaneta Stefanova.

It turned out to be another good day for the Indians here as yet again none of the men lost. Sandipan Chanda crashed through the defences of Grandmaster Mark Hebden of England with his white pieces while Surya Shekhar Ganguly proved a class above FIDE master Christian Seel of Germany who played white.

Former Commonwealth Champion Dibyendu Barua used his white pieces to maximum effect and defeated Scot GM Colin cnab, GM P Harikrishna recorded his third victory on the trot, accounting for International Master Mathias Womacka of Germany and GM Abhijit Kunte ended the dream run of compatriot Women International Master Swati Ghate with a finely crafted victory.

Swati, however, still has excellent chances for her final WGM norm as her average rating in the past two rounds had shot up quite a bit.

Looking for his final GM norm, IM Tejas Bakre came up with another spirited show to hold higher rated Grandmaster Sarunas Sulskis of Lithuania. Tejas, with white, played a solid game to get a draw against third GM in four rounds so far.

Amongst the Indian women, the Subbaramandown to Grandmaster Bojan Vuckovic of Serbia while Kruttika Nadig scored second straight victory in the event, beating Norwegian Emil Agdestein.

The top two seeds, Commonwealth champion Nigel Short of England and Alexei Dreev of Russia also scored easy wins over GM Pia Cramling of Sweden and GM Ruslan Pogorelov of Russia.

Important results round 4 (Indians unless specified):
Paul Motwani (3, Sco) drew with Ernesto Inarkiev (3, Rus); Joeseph Gallagher (3, Sui) drew with Alexey Kuzmin (3, Rus); Sandipan Chanda (3.5) beat Mark Hebden (2.5); Christian Seel (3.5, Ger) lost to Surya Shekhar Ganguly (3.5); Nigel Short (3, Eng) beat Ruslan Pogorelov (2, Rus); Pia Cramling (2, Swe) lost to Alexei Dreev (3, Rus); Mathias Womacka (2, Ger) lost to P Harikrishna (3); Tejas Bakre (2.5) drew Sarunas Sulskis (2.5, Ltu); Jonathan Speelman (3, Eng) beat Daniel Contin (2, Ita); Dibyendu Barua (3) beat Colin Mcnab (2, Sco); Jonathan Rowson (2.5, Sco) drew Till Wipperman (2.5, Ger); Mohamed Tissir (2.5, Mor) drew Bogdan Lalic (2.5, Eng); Abhijit Kunte (3) beat Swati Ghate (2); Murray Chandler (3, Eng) beat Tarik Rrhioua (2, Mor); Jovanka Houska (2.5, Eng) drew with John Emms (2.5, Eng); David Howell (2.5, Eng) drew with Peter Wells (2.5, Eng); S Meenakshi (2.5) drew with S Vijayalakshmi (2.5); John Shaw (1.5, Sco) lost to Antoaneta Stefanova (3, Bulgr) beat Nisha Mohota (1.5); Emil Agdestein (1, Nor) lost to Kruttika Nadig (2).