Lanka Ravi beats Russian GM

Moscow:

Grandmaster norm holder Lanka Ravi inched closer to his second norm after defeating GM Evgeny Pigusov of Russia in a fifth round match in Group 'A' in the Aeroflot International Open Chess tournament now underway here. GM Krishnan Sasikiran also came up with an inspired performance after a rather uncharacteristic loss in the last round and put it across Grandmaster Aleksei Lugovoi of Russia. However, it was yet another day of safety-first approach by the nine overnight leaders which saw eight of them taking draws while the other GM Kaido Kuloats of Estonia went down fighting to second seed local star Alexey Dreev. With just four rounds to go, in this USD 25,000 first prize tournament, the lead positions are shared by as many as 18 Grandmasters who all have 4 points each while both Sasikiran and Lanka Ravi were among 24 players who are next in the list with 3.5 points each. The day was otherwise OK for the other Indian contestants in the star-studded group with the remaining three - GM Praveen Thispay, GM Sandipan Chanda and International Master Neelotpal Das settling for draws against Russians Konstantin Landa, Artem Iljin and Sarhan Guliev of Azerbaijan respectively. Though the chances for making it to the top appear very minimal for all three, their fighting abilities have really come to the fore here. (PTI)