Three Indians lead at Dubai Chess

Dubai: Talented youngster M R Lalith Babu put up a fine show to beat international Master Sergey Kayumov of Uzbekistan in the second round of Dubai International Open chess championship for Sheikh Rashid Bin Hamdan Al Maktoum Cup in Dubai on Tuesday.

Grandmaster R B Ramesh and teenager S P Sethuraman were the other Indians to come up with a flawless performances.

Playing with black, Ramesh had to withstand a slightly dubious onslaught from compatriot OT Anil Kumar but once the GM got his counter play rolling there was no defense for his opponent at Dubai chess and culture club.

Sethuraman scored over compatriot IM Vishal Sareen, who was outdone early in the middle game, on what turned out to be a better day for the huge Indian contingent.

After the first two rounds of tournament, which carries a prize money of USD 40,000, as many as 23 players share the lead with a perfect score.

Lalith Babu, Ramesh and Sethuraman are among the leaders while IM Abhijeet Gupta, Woman Grandmaster Aarthie Ramamswamy and World Under-12 champion N Srinath are in the next group of 1.5 pointers.

Lalith Babu employed his pet Caro Kann defense and put up stiff resisitance when Kayumov was seen pressing for an advantage.

The Advance Variation by the Uzbek did not yield a desirable position in the middle game and Lalith Kumar superbly shredded white's position into pieces in the final stages of the game.

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Among other Indians in the fray, IM Prathamesh Mokal went down fighting against top seed Izoria Zviad of Georgia in a keenly contested game.

Playing the white side of a Sicilian Scheveningen, Mokal played it safe in the opening and allowed Zviad to gain a balanced position early in the middle game.

As the game progressed, it looked like drifting towards a draw but the Georgian hung in there and created a lot of problems for a slightly defensive white pieces to finally get the breakthrough he was looking for.

The endgame finally turned out in the favour of the Georgian after Mokal made an error.

D Sai Srinivas was beaten Merab Gagunashvili of Georgia in a one-sided affair while Aarthie Ramaswamy missed out a few winning opportunities before settling for peace with GM norm holder Safarli Eltaz of Azerbaijan.

After a diastrous first round loss, double GM norm holder Parimarjan Negi made short work of Valerio Axel of Philippines.