of the contenders were the other three stars in
the fray. For Ganguly, it had to be Shirov, Sethu
and Shankland, in that order. He had already got
past Sethu with a win, and now, he was standing
regally on a perfect score, with two rounds to go.
He was facing Shankland in the eighth round, and
Shirov in the ninth. Sam Shankland of the USA,
was not far behind, though, as he stood at 6.5/7.
Shankland, playing white, sacrificed two minor
pieces for a rook and two pawns, the latter
impressively positioned on e4 and d4, at the
epicenter. Curiously, a couple of moves later, the material imbalance shifted again, this time it
became Ganguly's knight versus three pawns for White, with their central dominance still intact.
Shankland eventually rolled across the black position to land a crucial blow—he had overtaken
Ganguly and was now in the lead with 7.5/8!
Harika wins gold at Eurasian Blitz!
The Eurasian Blitz Cup of the President of Kazakhstan was held on 18 June and 19 June at the city
of Almaty. The strongest players from Europe and
Asia assimilated in the Kazakh city to play the blitz
tournament including names such as Nepomniachtchi, Karjakin, Gelfand, Grischuk (the World
Champion), Svidler, etc. India had two contenders
for the medals — Sasi and Harika.
Harika finished 28th in the main prize-list, but she was the best women in the field. There was
a host of other women players, and GM Hou Yifan too scored the same points as Harika but
was relegated to the second spot on the tiebreak.
Not too long ago, Harika had also won the FIDE Online Arena Blitz Championship that was held
among the best women players in the world. If you are wondering if it would be appropriate to
call Harika the best in blitz among the women, Harika shrugged, "I don't know. Maybe it's fine
to say that. But I can't say this, the spectators should!"
XXXIX Open Internacional de Barberà del Vallès "A" tournament, Spain
GM Karthikeyan Murali finishes second on tie break
A total of 97 players participated in the 39th Open Internacional de Barbera del Valles “A”
tournament and 31 of them were Indians.The group is second highest by numbers behind
Spanish themselves. The Indian challenge was led by GM Shyam Sundar and GM Karthikeyan
Murali followed by an array of International Masters and under-rated Indians. After nine rounds
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