Grandmaster Pendyala Harikrishna scored a crushing victory over International Master Enamul Hossian of Bangladesh in the second round to maintain his clean slate in the Smith and Williamson British Open chess championship in Edinburg, Scotland, on Wednesday.
On a day when most of the Indians recovered from their bad start, Women Grandmaster norm holder Swati Ghate defeated highly-rated International Master Pert Nicholas of England.
The lead is now shared by four Englishmen - Adam Hunt, Nassir Ahmad, Rajko Vujatovik and Aaron Summersclae -- besides Harikrishna and Swati, who all have two points each from as many games.
As many as 22 players remain on the heels of the leaders with just half a point difference. The pack includes GM Surya Shekhar Ganguly, IM Neelotpal Das, IM S Kidambi, IM Tejas Bakre and Woman Grandmaster Aarthie Ramaswamy.
This is a 94-player, 11-round contest that carries the winners' purse of 10,000 pound sterling.
Commonwealth champion Dibyendu Barua, who suffered a rather uncharacterstic loss against Adam Hunt in the opening round, was back to his winning ways as Nicholas Thomas of England proved no match to him.
However, Hunt continued to make merry against the Indians as he scored yet another victory, accounting for Grandmaster Abhijit Kunte. Hunt, rated 2395, can now make a dash for a Grandmaster norm now with his excellent start.
The other Indians had a field day with Neelotpal Das and S Kidambi securing draws against local Grandmasters Jonathan Rowson and Paul Motwani respectively after intense battles.
Tejas Bakre too did a good job, holding former champion, Grandmaster Joe Gallagher of Switzerland, who played black.
Ganguly recovered from a first round draw and cruised past James Simpson of England while special entrant Gurpreet Pal Singh scored a fine victory over English Alan Walton.
Swati was the pick of Indian eves as she put up yet another brave front after beating compatriot WGM S Vijayalakshmi in the first round.
The latter came back into reckoning after accounting for Adam Ashton of England while Aarthie Ramaswamy scored over South African Gordon Meyer.
Nisha Mohota also won her game while Eesha Karavade and S Meenakshi opened their accounts with hard-fought draws.
For Harikrishna, it proved to be a very easy outing with white pieces against Enamul Hossain. The Bangladeshi fell prey to some positional tricks right from the opening and did not get a chance to recover.
Counting on his prowess rather than the opening knowledge, Harikrishna opened with the King pawn which was obviously a surprise for Enamul. The game took shape in a Closed Sicilian where Harikrishna got in to the demolition act right from the early middle game as Harikrishna opened the queenside.
Enamul felt the heat soon after as white's pieces co-ordinated extremely well. Hari tightened the noose around black's king with every move and Enamul's positioned worsened beyond repair despite his counterplay bid with a temporary pawn sacrifice. The game lasted just 26 moves.
Neelotpal Das misplayed what could have been an easy full point against Rowson. In a Sicilian Nazdorf where the latter played black, Neelotpal got a nearly decisive advantage with well calculated manoeuvres. However, what should have been a smooth cruise, resulted in a uphill task for Neelotpal, who went for an erroneous plan and had to be content with a draw against Jonathan Rowson.
Kidambi did not face much trouble as it was a smooth draw with Motwani who played black. The Queen's Indian defence gave Kidambi some advantage in the middle game but the pieces got exchanged at regular intervals. After the 32nd move, it was a minor pieces endgame on board and five moves later the peace treaty was signed.
Important results (Indians unless specified):
Round 2: Daniel Gormally (1.5, Eng) drew Stuart Conquest (1.5, Eng); P Harikrishna (2) beat Enamul Hossain (1, Ban); Neelotpal Das (1.5) drew Jonathan Rowson (1.5, Sco); S Kidambi (1.5) drew Paul Motwani (1.5, Sco); Ziaur Rahman (1.5, Ban) drew Stewart Haslinger (1.5, Eng); Tejas Bakre (1.5) drew Joseph Gallagher (1.5, Sui); Adam Hunt (2, Eng) beat Abhijit Kunte (1); Aaron Summerscale (2, Eng) beat Peter Sowray (1, Eng); Swati Ghate (2) beat Nicholas Pert (1. Eng); Dibyendu Barua (1) beat Nicholas Thomas (1, Eng); S S Ganguly (1.5) beat James Simpson (1, Eng); Adam Ashton (1, Eng) lost to S Vijayalakshmi (1); Neil Mcdonald (1, Eng) beat Joe Redpath (1, Sco); Aarthi Ramaswamy (1.5) beat Gordon Meyer (0.5, RSA); Eesha Karavade (0.5) drew Bret Addison (1, Eng); Nisha Mohota (1) beat David Guthrie (0, Nzl); Matthew Simons (0.5, Eng) drew S Meenakshi (0.5) ; Gurpreet Pal Singh (1) beat Alan Walton (0, Eng).
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