Chess: Prasanna celebrates GM title, beats Chatalbashev

V Vishnu Prasanna celebrated his new Grandmaster status by outwitting seasoned GM Boris Chatalbashev of Bulgaria to stay in joint lead after the end of the fourth round of Grand Europe Albena chess tournament in Albena, Bulgaria. Winning his fourth game of the trot, the unassuming Prasanna shares the podium with Sandro Mareco of Argentina with a perfect score. Having crossed the 2500 rating barrier required to become a Grandmaster as per FIDE rules, Prasanna will be looking for a career best performance on this black sea resort.

After a sedate start, highest rated Indian Abhijeet Gupta continued with his catching up act and defeated Frenchman Manuel Valles to inch closer to three points out of a possible four. Abhijeet has won two games with white but both his black games have ended in draws so far. Also reaching three points was Ashwin Jayaram who played out a draw with Yurtseven Melih of Turkey and Anurag Mahamal who put it across Viktoriya Tarasova of Russia. In other results involving Indians, Swapnil Dhopade lost the momentum and went down to Tigran Petrosian of Armenia, Sagar Shah recovered to post a victory at the expense of Janev Pavel of Bulgaria while N Raghavi lost to Ogulcan Kanmazalp of Turkey. With five rounds still to come in the 30000 Euros prize money tournament, the two leaders are followed by nine players on 3.5 points apiece while Abhijeet and Jayaram share the 12

th

spot with 20 others.  Prasanna played out a thorough entertainer against Chatalbashev. Fortunes fluctuated a little in the opening and the queen-less middle game that ensued but the Indian kept his cool after imprisoning a black Bishop at the cost of some pawns. Chatalbashev missed a tactical spot that was quite unusual as the Indian left everything hanging near on the king side to march his king forward. What transpired eventually was a checkmate web that would make even the strongest players proud. The game lasted 34 moves. Dhopade ran out of luck against Petrosian out of an English opening game where the former played black. Exchanges at regular intervals led to a worse endgame for Dhopade and after the queens got traded the Indian was saddled with a Bad Bishop. Petrosian completed the formalities with remarkable ease and won in 67 moves. Important and Indian results after Round 4 (Indians unless  specified): Sandro Mareco  (ARG, 4) beat Constantin Lupulescu (ROU, 3); Evgeny Sveshnikov (LAT, 3.5) drew with Vasil Spasov  (BUL, 3.5); V Vishnu Prasanna (4) beat Boris Chatalbashev (BUL, 4); Tigran Petrosian (ARM, 3.5) beat Swapnil  Dhopade (2.5); Hrant Melkumyan  (ARM, 3.5) beat Berescu Alin-Mile (ROU, 2.5); Igor Glek  (GER, 2.5) lost to Levente Vajda (ROU, 3.5); Vladislav Nevednichy  (ROU, 3.5) beat Zurab Javakhadze (GEO, 2.5); Mircea-Emilian Parligras (ROU, 3.5) beat Davit Zarkua (GEO, 2.5); Valeri Lilov (BUL, 2.5) lost to Yuri Solodovnichenko (UKR, 3.5); Yurtseven Melih (TUR, 3) drew with Ashwin Jayaram (3); Abhijeet Gupta (3) beat Manuel Valles (FRA, 2.5); Viktoriya Tarasova (RUS, 2) lost to Anurag Mhamal (3); N Raghavi (1.5) lost to Ogulcan Kanmazalp (2.5); Sagar Shah (2.5) beat Janev Pavel (BUL, 1.5). Photograph: Mario Tama/Getty Images