Kunte scores key chess victory

Indian Grandmaster Abhijit Kunte and Sandipan Chanda registered crucial victories over Grandmaster Al Modiahki of Qatar and Filippov Valery of Russia respectively in the sixth round.

C.S. Gokhale defeated R.B. Ramesh in a keenly contested match. Sandipan Chanda shocked Russian Grandmaster Valery Fillipov. Sandipan outclassed his opponent with enterprising play in a Sicilian defence . Sandipan adopted a slow attacking system and doubled weakness in filippov's pawn structure. Flippov exchanged queens early and sacrificed an exchange counterplay. Sandipan outwitted the experienced grandmaster in a tactical sequence and emerged with an exchange up in the ending. Despite Filippov's resistance The Indian Prodigy drove home his advantage with precise play.

Kunte adopted the classical variation in the Spanish Ruy Lopez and obtained a better position. Modiahki gave up a bishop pair to create a central passed pawn in the sixth rank. The Indian Grandmaster utilized the bishop pair to eliminate this dangerous passed pawn. Modiahki's queen was trapped and he had a rook and knight as compensation. Kunte won with superb technical play exploiting the lack of coordination among White's pieces in 50 moves.

Grandmasters Asrian Karen of Armenia and Jaan Ehlvest of Estonia shared the lead with 5 points at the end of the sixth round of the Dubai Open chess championship. Eight Players are in the second spot with 4.5 points.

Hassan Mohammed Seif of UAE won his game against Mahmoody Sadegh of in 30 moves. Abdullah Mansoor lost to Grandmaster Ermenkov Evgeny of Byelorussia in 22 moves from opening. Jasim Saleh was defeated by Annageldyev Orazly of Turkmenistan in 26 moves.

Grandmaster Karen Asrian took a quick draw against Sermek Drazan to consolidate his position at the top. GM Ehlvest Jaan caught up with the Armenian Grandmaster with a convincing victory over Federov Alexei. In a Sicilian Defense led to castling on opposite sides. Both players attempted risky line of play and went for direct attack against the King.

Ehlvest ideal piece position gave him the momentum. He opened up the king rook file to grab the initiative. The experienced Estonian Grandmaster took the game to its logical conclusion and won in just 31 moves.

Results of round 6: Asrian, Karen (5)drew Sermek, Drazan (4.5) Ehlvest, Jaan (5) bt Fedorov, Alexei (4) Glek, Igor V (4) drew Kharlov, Andrei (4) Neverov, Valery (3.5) lost to Vladimirov, Evgeny (4.5) Alexandrov, Aleksej (4.5)bt Magerramov, Elmar (3.5) Galkin, Alexander (4) drewMotylev, Alexander (4) Sorokin, Maxim (4) drew Shariyazdanov, Andre (4) Dizdar, Goran (4) drew Kobalija, Mihail ) Kuzmin, Alexey (4) drew Volzhin, Alexander (4) Safin, Shukhrat (4.5) bt Pigusov, Evgeny (3.5) Minasian, Artashes (4.5) bt Yakovich, Yuri (3.5) Kotsur, Pavel (3.5) lost to Pavasovic, Dusko (4.5) Gadjily, Raouf (4.5) bt Anastasian, Ashot (3.5) Al Modiakhi, Mohamad (3.5) lost to Kunte, Abhijit (4.5) Sandipan, Chanda (4) bt Filippov, Valerij (3) Sturua, Zurab (4) bt Ravi, Thandalam S (3) Sveshnikov, Evgeny (3.5) drew Sharma, Dinesh K (3.5) Mahdi, Khaled (3) lost to Jobava, Baadur (4 Dzhumaev, Marat (3) lost to Mahjoob, Morteza (4) Abdullah, Mansoor (3) lost to Ermenkov, Evgenij (4) Bengafer, Moh. (3) lost to Odeev, Handszar (4) Arkhipov, Sergey (3) drew Hamed, Ahmed (3) Annageldyev, Orazly (3.5) bt Jasim, A.R.Saleh (2.5) El Taher, Fouad (3.5) bt Ozolin, Aris (2.5) Shetty, Rahul (3) drew Vakhidov, Taher (3) Ghane, Shojaat (3.5) bt Kayumov, Sergey (2.5) Gokhale, C.S (3.5) bt Ramesh, R.B (2.5) Abdelnabbi, Imed (3.5) bt Molina, Antonio (2.5) Alavi, Sayed Javad (3.5) bt Neelotpal, Das (2.5) Sadatnajafi, M (3) drew Tahirov, Farhad (3) Saleh, Nabil (2.5) lost to Sale, Srdjan (3.5) Salem, Ghuloom (2.5) lost to El Arousy, Hameed (3.5) Abdul Latief (2) lost to Maghami, Ehsan (3).