Al Ain: GM Tigran L. Petrosian of Armenia beat erstwhile sole leader Gaioz Nigalidze of Georgia in the penultimate round to force a two-way tie for the lead with Vladimir Onischuk of Ukraine in the Al Ain Classic Chess Championship at the Hili Reyhaan Rotana hotel in Al Ain.
Petrosian, 30, used the English Opening and gained the advantage of Bishop for Knight in the endgame. The Armenian was threatening to Queen a passed pawn when Nigalidze resigned in a marathon 91 moves after five and a half hours of play.
The win gave Petrosian 6.5 points in a tie with Onischuk. The two leaders face each other in the decisive final round for the top prize of $11,000 (Dh40,000) in a total of $50,000. Onischuk crushed the French Defense of Russian Sergey Volkov. After gaining two pieces for a Rook, the Ukrainian advanced his centre pawns and weaved a mating net to force Volkov to resign on the 37th move.
Nigalidze dropped to a share of third to 10th slots at 6 points each together with 19-year-old Vidit Santosh Gujrathi and Sandipan Chanda, both of India, Sergei Zhigalko of Belarus, Mikheil Mchedlishvili of Georgia and Ukrainians Yuriy Kryvoruchko, Mikhailo Oleksienko and Alexander Areshchenko.
Gujrathi, who hails from Nasik in the western Indian state of Maharashtra, smashed the French Defense of compatriot Deep Sengupta in 63 moves. Sandipan needed only 31 moves to crush the Nimzo-Indian Defense of Prasanna Vishnu of India. It was a bad day for other Indian players as Areshchenko beat Sahaj Grover of India in 55 moves of a Ruy Lopez game and Mchedlishvili used the English Opening to outplay G.N. Gopal of India in 45 moves. Oleksienko used the Dutch Defense to beat Levon Babujan of Armenia in 52 moves. The game between Kryvoruchko and Zhigalko was a draw in 43 moves of a Closed Ruy Lopez game.
Fourteen players follow with 5.5 points each in the race for cash prizes for the first 20 places. In 11th to 24th slots are Volkov, Armenians Hovik Hayrapetyan, Arman Pashikian and Samuel Ter-Sahakyan, Nijat Abasov of Azerbaijan, Vadim Malakhatko of Belgium, Luka Paichadze of Georgia, Sahaj Grover and Abhijeet Gupta of India, Atousa Pourkashiyan of Iran, Mahmood Lodhi of Pakistan, Mircea Emilian Parligras of Romania, Yuriy Kyuzubov and Samuel Shankland of the USA.
