Indian Chess Wrap, May 12: Karthikeyan goes down to Daneshvar at Asian Individual Championship

Indian Grandmaster Murali Karthikeyan went down fighting against Bardiya Daneshvar of Iran but Srija Sheshadri came back from behind to beat Russia’s Anastasia Bodnaruk in the sixth round of Asian Individual Chess Championships in Al Ain on Monday.

Daneshvar has emerged as the sole leader on 5.5 points after another victory and is the front runner for the gold medal in this $80000 prize money tournament.

It was a Sicilian defense by Karthikeyan as black and Daneshvar employed the Alapin variation. The opening does not enjoy a great following at top level chess but Karthikeyan felt the heat in the middle game as Daneshvar got more active pieces.

After the dust settled, Karthikeyan was down a pawn in the rook ending and lost in 49 moves.

Ivan Zemlyanskii of Russia emerged as the sole occupant of the second spot defeating Jiang Haochen of China. It was a long drawn affair in which the Russian dominated the endgame and took his tally to five points.

Karthikeyan slipped to joint third spot on 4.5 points and giving him company was M. Pranesh who drew with Russian Sergei Lobanov.

In the women’s section, overnight joint leader Srija Seshadri sprang a major surprise on Bodnaruk in a battle of wits after nearly six hours of play.

Srija with white pieces had to combat against as many as three black pieces against her queen but the end was quite satisfactory for the Indian as Bodnaruk blundered a rook and lost.

With three rounds still to come, highest rated Indian Vantika Agrawal made another stride forward at the expense of Afruza Khamdamova of Uzbekistan. Vantika took her tally to 5 points and climbed to joint second spot along with compatriot P V Nandhidhaa who defeated Tokhirjonova Gulrukhbegum of Uzbekistan.