Ganguly held by Gopal, Negi impresses

Second seeded Grandmaster Surya Shekhar Ganguly was held to a draw by former national junior champion G N Gopal in the third round of the 4th Parsvnath International Open Chess tournament in Delhi on Monday.

With the draw, Gopal, who made his maiden International Master norm during the last World Junior Chess Championship at Istanbul, improved chances of his second norm with a tally of 2.5 points out of a possible three.

In other important games on the top boards, Grandmaster Ziaur Rahman of Bangladesh raced to a quick victory against International Master Rahul Shetty of India, while top seed Alexei Fedorov of Belarus was made to work hard for the full point by Indian Woman Grandmaster Dronavalli Harika.

However, Grandmasters Alexander Raetsky and Konstantin Chernyshov of Russia, Niaz Murshed of Bangladesh and India's Sandipan Chanda were held to draws by lower ranked opponents.

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Hyderabad based Rishipal Singh also capitalised on a blunder by national blitz champion R R Laxman to romp home.

Gopal played a fine defensive game with black pieces to sign peace with Ganguly. It was a Sicilian Najdorf in which the Kerala-based teenager was taken to task in a positional battle in which Ganguly retained a slight advantage for the major part of the game.

Ganguly conceded after the game, that Gopal won because he hung in there, making the right moves and playing well.

After G B Joshi's creditable draw against GM Abhijit Kunte in the previous round, Sandeep Chitkara and VS Negi caught the attention of local enthusiasts. While Chitkara defeated Woman Grandmaster Swati Ghate, Negi played a fine game to beat higher ranked Somak Palit.

The event is being played under FIDE Swiss Rules with 10 rounds in all. The total prize money is Rs 7.5 lakhs out which the winner will receive Rs 1,75,000.