Srihari, Nitin among the leaders – The New Indian Express
CHENNAI: International Masters Srihari LR, Nitin S, Srijit Paul with 4 points rubbed shoulders with top seeds as they won their fourth round matches at the 13th Chennai Grandmaster Open International Chess Tournament for the Sakthi Group Dr Mahalingam Trophy here tuesday.
In the lead at 4/4 were GMs Savchenko Boris (Russia), Stupak Kirill (Belarus), Baghdasaryan Vahe (Armenia) as well as MI Nitin (India), Srihari (India), Srijit (India), FM Jubin (India ) and Abdyjapar Asyl (Kyrgyzstan). Co-leaders Srihari, Nitin and Srijit defeated Tiwari Arjun (India), Luong Phuong Hanh, Nguyen Thanh THuy Tien (both Vietnamese) respectively.
In the upset of the day, Chennai lad Vignesh B knocked down Grandmaster Nguyen Van Huy of Vietnam. In a quiet midgame, the Vietnamese GM overlooked an intermediate failure when his position collapsed in 33 moves. On Monday, Vignesh held off experienced grandmaster Fedorov Alexei (Belarus) in a game of Giuoco Piano that lasted 50 moves.
Results: Round 4 (Indians unless otherwise stated): Savchenko Boris (Russia) 4.0 bt Hirthickkesh PR 3.0, Ziatdinov Raset (USA) 3.0 lost to Stupak Kirill (Belarus) 4.0, Ajay Karthikeyan 3.5 drew Murali Krishnan BT 3.5, Luong Phuong Hanh (Vietnam) 3.0 lost to Nitin S 4.0, Srihari LR 4.0 bt Tiwari Arjun 3.0, Srijit Paul 4.0 bt Nguyen Thanh THuy Tien (Vietnam) 3.0, Ravichandran Siddharth 3.5 drew with Pawar Harshit 3.5, Abdyjapar Asyl (Kyrgyzstan) ) 4.0 bt Daksh Goyal 3.0, Vijay Anand M 3.0 lost to Baghdasaryan Vahe (Armenia) 4.0, Jubin Jimmy 4.0 bt Majumder Shrayan 3.0, Vignesh B 3.5 bt Nguye Van Huy (Vietnam) 2.5.
Attackers training
In an effort to hone the finishing skills of young footballers, the city’s International Strikers Academy (Football Plus) runs a training program for players (13 and older). Former Athletic Bilbao player Gaizka Toquero will coach the players. The first session is scheduled for August 15-21. The total cost of the course will be Rs 1 lakh for one week and the players will be accommodated in a 3 star hotel and food and local transfer will be taken care of. . David Anand, coach and founder of Football Plus, expects at least 100 strikers from across India. Two top players in the program will receive a 100% scholarship for a month of training in Spain. They will train with a La Liga second division club.