Sasikiran beats Feldman in Dubai chess opener

from Our Chess Correspondent
Dubai, Apr 11 (PTI) Top seeded Indian Grandmaster K
Sasikiran warded off some initial resistance from Australian
Vladimir Feldman to open with a comfortable win in the 13th
Dubai International Open Chess Tournament here.
National champion Grandmaster Surya Shekhar Ganguly did
not have any difficulties in tackling Yann-Michael Guidez of
France either while it was smooth sailing for GM Parimarjan
Negi against Al Razi Naji Mohd Saeed of UAE as well.
Former world junior champion Abhijeet Gupta opened his
account against Amir Kowsarinia of Iran and the other two
Indian GMs in the fray -– B Adhiban and R R Laxman -- also
coasted to easy victories in the USD 45000 tournament.
With a total of 41 Grandmasters in fray, including six
Indians, this year's Dubai Open is the strongest ever.
In terms of participation, India (42) is way ahead of
hosts UAE which has 22 players in the event.
Expectations are high from Sasikiran as it is the first
time that an Indian has been given top billing in the event.
However, this itself may not be very important for
Sasikiran as he was also top seed in the Corus (Now Tata)
tournament of 2009 and the Indian had finished last.
Putting that behind, Sasikiran started his campaign on a
positive note. Playing white against Feldman, the Indian went
for a Queen pawn opening and got slightly better prospects in
the middle game.
Feldman felt the heat with pieces disappearing off the
board as Sasikiran had an extra pawn. The rook endgame that
ensued was child's play and the game lasted 72 moves.
Ganguly faced the Sicilian defense against Yann-Michael
Guidez. In a typical middle game arising out of the opening,
Ganguly created a central bind and initiated a queen side
attack which Guidez found too difficult to handle.
Ganguly picked up a pawn at will and went for the trading
of queens to force matters in the endgame.
Parimarjan Negi won a miniature. Up against the French
defense of Saeed, the second youngest ever Grandmaster in the
history of the game went for the kill following lackluster
play by his opponent.


Saeed first faced a dangerous attack, lost a rook for
knight and when further material loss was inevitable, called
it a day in just 19 moves.
Among other Indians in the fray, International Master
Tania Sachdev defeated Mohd Hayel Rafee of Syria while
youngster Sayantan Das went down fighting against second seed
Vladimir Akopian of Armenia.
Indian results round 1 (Indians unless specified):
Krishnan Sasikiran beat Vladimir Feldman (Aus); Sayantan Das
lost to Vladimir Akopian (Arm); S S Ganguly beat Yann-Michael
Guidez (Fra); Parimarjan Negi beat Al Razi Naji Mohd Saeed
(Uae); Amir Kowsarinia lost to Abhijeet Gupta (Iri); B Adhiban
beat Romany Salah (Egy); Samer Mehdi (Iri) lost to M R Lalith
Babu; Logman Guliev (Aze) beat P I Johny; Karen Grigoryan
(Arm) beat Manodip Dhar; Naser Khadzh Khamed (Ukr) lost to R
R Laxman; Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury beat Praful Zaveri; Ivana
Maria Furtado lost to S Satyaragyan; M Shyam Sundar beat
Gurbangeldi Amangeldiyev (Tkm); Ashwin Jayaram beat Mama
Ingcongan (Phi); Niklesh Jain Singhai lost to Anwesh
Upadhyaya; Ramnath Bhuvanesh drew with Serdar Veliyev (Tkm);
Swapnil S Dhopade beat Ahmed Fayez (Uae); Mohd Hayel Rafee
(Syr) lost to Tania Sachdev; Nora Mohd Saleh (Uae) lost to
Prathamesh Sunil Mokal; Davit Zarkua (Geo) beat M Vigram;
Illan M Hammed (Jor) lost to Shiven Khosla; S Nitin beat
Gurbanberdi Besherov (Tkm); K Sudharsan Surya lost to Vishnu
Prasanna; GV Sai Krishna beat Sultan Ibrahim (Uae); Amna
Nouman (Uae) lost to Narayanan Srinath; Jehad Aysha (Uae) lost
to Fenil Shah; Somoff Abdolost (Lib) lost to Aditya Udeshi.