Mumbai Mayors Cup International Open Chess Tournament , 2008

Report Day 7

Goregaon Sports Club

Kransekow Maintains Lead

Overnight leader and top-seeded Polish GM Michael Kransenkow maintained his slender ½ point lead over rest of the field as the players on the top-boards played safe and agreed for draws to retain their championship chances at the end of round 9 of the LIC – Mumbai Mayor's International Chess Tournament at Goregaon Sports Club.

On the top board GM Abhijit Kunte and Kransenkow agreed for a draw just after 11 moves in the Catalan opening while Al-Rakib drew with his colleague, Ziaur Rahman in 10 moves from the Moscow variation of the Sicilian Defense.

The fight on the 3rd board between GM-norm holder M.S. Thejkumar and 3rd seeded Macieje proved to be exciting as the Indian player, who is rated much below Macieja, invited complications in the opening by sacrificing a pawn on move 9. He also tried to open lines for his pieces and also saddled him with doubled pawns on the 'a' file however, Macieja was able to equalize and players agreed for a draw after the exchanges.

2nd seeded GM Koneru Humpy, renowned for her fighting qualities, tried to quell the challenge of IM Aurn Prasad. In the King's Indian defense – unusual variation, Humpy, playing white, was able to gain ascendancy in the endgame stage and was able to create a dangerous passer on the 'b' file.  However; Arun took advantage of the exposed King of white and was able to give perpetual checks. Humpy agreed to a draw after 65 moves as she could not halt checks from the Black's Queen.

Meanwhile Uzebek GM, Anton Fillipov quelled the challenge of IM Venkatesh and Bangladeshi GM Reefat Sattar and Georgian GM Merab Gagunashvili defeated their opponents, Deep Sengupta and B.S. Shivananda respectively. The other notable victory was scored by IM Anup Deshmukh of LIC, who defeated GM Elizabar Ubilava.

With 2 rounds remaining in this 11-round tourney, a group of 6 players, Al-Rakib, Thejkumar, Kunte, Ziaur Rahman and Fillipov are trailing Kransenkow by half-a-point while a big pack of 12-players lead by Humpy are occupying the 3rd spot with 7 points.