Kolkata Open Chess: Vidit joins Kunte in the lead

Former Under 14 world champion and Indian grandmaster Vidit Santosh Gujrathi joined his compatriot GM Abhijit Kunte in the lead with five points after the sixth round of the 6th Kolkata Open (19th International Open GM Chess Tournament) here Sunday.

Five players are in the second spot, grabbing 4.5 points each.

GM Al Rakib Abdulla of Bangladesh adopted Nimzo Indian defence against Vidit and the game went on expected lines. In move 19, Vidit doubled his rooks, and Abdulla exchanged one of them to minimise the Indian's attack. But Vidit made a stunning rook sacrifice on the 23rd move, leading to a knight fork of Abdulla's king and queen. Abdulla resigned immediately.

On the top board, Kunte again played it safe to keep the lead, holding the Philippines grandmaster Oliver Barbosa to a draw in 25 moves of an English opening.

The second board game between Pantsulaia Levan of Georgia and Ziaur Rahman of Bangladesh also ended with a similar result, but it lasted 44 moves.

Top seeded Nigel Short of England could not wriggle out of his poor form, as Oriisa's international master Swayams Mishra forced him to concede his third draw in six games to less stronger opponents.

Second seeded Sergey Fedorchuk of Russia got the better of Asian Junior champion IM N Srinath and fourth seeded Mchedlishvili Mikheil outwitted former national under 17 champion P Shyam Nikil.

Important results of Sixth round

Kunte Abhijit IND 5 drew with Barbosa Oliver PHI 4 1/2

Pantsulaia Levan GEO 4 1/2 drew with Rahman Ziaur BAN 4 1/2

Vidit Santosh Gujrathi IND 5 beat Abdulla Al-Rakib BAN 4

Deepan Chakkravarthy J. IND 4 1/2 drew with Sethuraman S.P. IND 4

Debashis Das IND 3 1/2 lost to Landa Konstantin RUS 4 1/2

Haznedaroglu Kivanc TUR 4 drew with Adhiban B. IND 4

Swayams Mishra IND 3 1/2 drew with Short Nigel D. ENG 3 1/2

Fedorchuk Sergey A. UKR 4 beat Narayanan Srinath IND 3

Mchedlishvili Mikheil GEO 4 beat Shyam Nikil P. IND 3

Ly Moulthun AUS 3 lost to Lalith Babu M.R.IND 4

Grigoryan Avetik ARM 4 beat Swapnil S. Dhopade IND 3

Gopal G.N. IND 3 1/2 drew with Prasanna Raghuram Rao IND 3 1/2

Abhishek Kelkar IND 3 lost to Sengupta Deep IND 4

Shyam Sundar M. IND 4 beat Neelotpal Das IND 3

Ghosh Diptayan IND 4 beat Krishna C.R.G. IND 3