Ramesh forced to split point

International Master R B Ramesh's efforts to catch up with the leading pack received a setback as he had to spilt the point after wriggling out of a dangerous position in the 10th round of the Linares International Open Chess Championship.

Grandmaster Zurab Sturua stopped young GM Bacrot's winning run by holding him to a draw which put him in the joint lead on 7.5 points alongwith GMs S Sulskis, Z Zhang and G Kacheishvilli.

K Visveswaran, Sriram Jha and Aarthie Ramaswamy provided some consolation for India by winning their boards and garnering useful points.

Overnight winner Sandipan Chanda (2431), also on 5.5 points as Ramesh, continued with his good form to earn a creditable draw against higher-rated GM Arencibia (2513) from Cuba.

Ramesh (2467) faced some anxious moments against IM Pilgaard (2334) of Denmark before agreeing for a truce.

From the Black side of the Sicilian Classical variation, Ramesh sacrificed a pawn temporarily but quickly made up to recover it, thereby giving his opponent a pair of Bishops in an open position.

Ramesh lost a pawn in the ensuing middlegame and in a difficult position gave another pawn. He took a draw finally by perpetually checking the opponent's King.

Playing from the White side of the Ruy Lopez Steinitz Variation, Chanda exchanged two minor pieces early in the opening.

His opponent Arencibia created complications and won a pawn but Chanda put up a solid defence and forced the experienced Grandmaster to take a draw in a double Rook and Knight ending.

Dinesh Kumar Sharma (2355) let young IM Paraguay (2412) of the Philippines escape with a draw from the black side of the Centre Gambit opening after enjoying a pawn advantage right from the beginning.

Paraguay created lot of confusion for the lost pawn and the players entered a Rook and Bishop ending with Sharma enjoying a slight advantage but that was not sufficient and the players agreed to split the point.

IM Estremera Panos (2372) of Spain beat Rahul Shetty (2325) from the White side of the Queens Gambit exchange variation.

Though Shetty had a better position, he inexplicably blundered two pawns when he mistakenly changed the move order of the right plan.

After losing two pawns in succession, Shetty resigned immediately for an unfortunate loss.

IM Vasilev of Bulgaria played for a draw and got it against Chandrasekhar Gokhale (2326) from the White side of the Queen pawn opening.

Vasilev was very firm in exchanging all the pieces and soon a Rook and Pawn ending was reached with the position completely level. The players agreed to a draw in 65 moves.

Perez Candela Rio (2300) of Spain lost to a highly enterprising play from Visweswaran (2289). It was a Sicilian Najdorf variation and Visweswaran sacrificed an exchange for getting a pair of strong Bishops with the Black pieces.

Visweswaran launched a mating attack on the White King and Perez was forced to give back the exchange soon. But that was not enough to save him as Visweswaran delivered mate on the 56th move.

Sriram Jha (2412) finally broke the jinx by registering his first win after five consecutive draws in previous rounds.

His victim Potapenko (2129) from Russia lost from the Black side of the Note-boom variation. Potapenko made some errors in the opening and allowed Jha a Kingside attack.

Jha conducted the attack in a masterly fashion and check- mated Potapenko on the 30th move.

IWM Aarthie Ramaswamy (2250) beat Galochkin (2015) from Russia from a Sicilian Pelikan variation. Aarthie, playing white, launched a tremendous attack on the Black King from the word go and was on the point of delivering mate when her opponent decided to give up on the 25th move.

Important Results: GM Z Sturua (7.5) drew with GM E Bacrot (7.5); GM S Sulskis (7.5) drew with GM Z Zhang (7.5); GM M Kobalija (7) lost to GM G Kacheishvilli (7.5); IM Sandipan Chanda (5.5) drew with GM Walter Arencibia (5.5); IM R B Ramesh (5.5) drew with IM K Pilgaard (5.5); M Paraguay (5) drew with D K Sharma (5); Perez Candelario (4) lost to K Visweswaran (5); A Potapenko (4) lost to Sriram Jha (4.5); R Aarthie (4.5) beat S Galochkin (3.5); M Vasilev (4.5) drew with C S Gokhale (4.5); Estremera Panos (5) beat Rahul Shetty (4).