Sandipan Chanda registers second win

International Master Sandipan Chanda coasted to his second successive victory to remain in joint lead after the second round of the Ubeda International Open Chess tournament in Spain.

IM-elect Rahul Shetty and K Visweswaran left behind first round reverses to score fluent victories while R B Ramesh and C S Gokhale had to suffer defeats.

Sriram Jha, Dinesh Kumar Sharma and International Woman Master Aarthie Ramaswamy drew their matches.

Chanda played copybook moves in a Sicilian Taimonov variation against Dominguez of Cuba and obtained an unclear position at the end of the opening.

Dominguez varied on the 18th move and had used only five minutes till then. However, after Chanda's 20th move, Dominguez took one hour for his next move and slowly allowed Chanda to gain the upper hand both on time and on position.

Chanda created enough counter-play and won a Rook with a mating attack when his opponent decided to give up on the 39th move.

Visweswaran won comfortably with white pieces against partially blind Sanz Bose of Spain. It was a Center-Counter variation and Visweswaran exchanged the Queens early and obtained a dangerous passed pawn on the 'c5' square.

With accurate play he managed to Queen the pawn after winning a piece. Bose resigned on the 30th move.

Shetty played a theoretical game against unrated Jimenez Lindez of Spain. It was a Sicilian Dragon variation and Shetty won an exchange early and with correct play converted the material advantage into a win in 35 moves.

Sharma held another highly rated GM V Yendemirov of Russia with whilte pieces in a Ruy Lopez Steinitz variation.

Sharma followed the theoretical lines and didn't test Yandemirov much in the opening. The players agreed to a draw on the 22nd move with a Queen, Rook and Knight left on the board.

Jha put up a creditable performance holding GM Zilberman of Israel to a draw from the white side of an Alekhine defence.

Jha followed the game played between Sharma and Zilberman in the recently concluded Linares Open tournament and the Israeli varied early to obtain a slightly better position in the opening.

Jha had to use all his resources to transpose the game into a drawn King and pawn ending and peace was signed on the 32nd move.

Aarthie held experienced IM Ivanov Jordan of Bulgaria to a draw from the white side of a Center-Counter variation. Aarthie put some pressure on the black's isolated 'd5' pawn after exchanging the dark squared bishops.

She even sacrificed an exchange in the middlegame and obtained a better position. But in time trouble, she lost a passed pawn and had to be content with a draw.

Gokhale played the Petroff defence as black against GM Motylev and failed to equalise in the opening and got into an inferior position early in the game.

Motylev played postional chess and slowly manouevred his pieces to increase his advantage and won a pawn in the later middlegame. Gokhale managed to prolong the inevitable for some time but resigned in a hopeless Knight versus a bad Bishop ending.

Ramesh fell in a well-known trap in the Semi-Slav Meran variation to lose to third seeded GM Boris Avrukh in just 21 moves from the black side.

Avrukh tricked Ramesh by changing the move order initially in the opening and took Ramesh to an unknown line.

Ramesh allowed a big attack to his opponent and was severly punished with a bishop sacrifice. Ramesh put up the best defence but the position beyond repair and Ramesh resigned on the 21st move.

Results of second round matches:
GM L Dominguez (0.5) lost to IM Sandipan Chanda (2)
Sriram Jha (1.5) drew with GM Zilberman (1.5)
GM Avrukh (2) bt IM R B Ramesh (1)
Rahul Shetty (1) bt R Jimenez (0)
D K Sharma (1) drew with GM V Yendemirov (1)
IWM Aarthie Ramaswamy (0.5) drew with Ivanov Jordan (0.5)
K Visweswaran (1) bt N Sanz (0)
GM Motylev (1.5) bt C S Gokhale (0.5).