Laxman shocks Pravin Thipsay

Former British under-12 champion R R Laxman shocked Indian Grandmaster Pravin Thipsay to garner full points in the second round of the Commonwealth chess championship in Mumbai on Monday.

Another 12-year-old, Mumbai schoolgirl Siddhali Shetye also scored a major upset when she recorded a sensational win over woman GM-norm holder Saheli Barua.

Laxman employed the classical variation against Thipsay's pet King's Indian opening and took control of the centre. The veteran GM used his knights to create dangerous threats but Laxman repulsed the attack and scored the win on the 63rd move to take his total tally to two points.

Thipsay has just one point.

The Indian International Masters too had a field day as quite of few of them managed to hold opponent GMs from other countries. Ravi Hegde's enterprising play earned him a creditable draw against Russian GM Alexander Fominyh.

V Sarvanan managed to sign the truce with Latvin GM Igor Rausis, who is now settled in the Bangladesh. 15-year-old Indian GM Koneru Humpy was forced to share points with Bangladesh youngster Aminul Islam while other two GMs, Abhijit Kunte and Pendyala Harikrishna, were held to draws by compatriots Prathamesh Mokal and Chandrasekhar Gokhale respectively.

Former National junior champion Poobesh Anand played well and forced Uzbek GM Saidali Luldachev to sign peace in one of the best matches of his career while the top two seeds, Rustom Kasimzanov of Uzbekistan and Krishnan Sasikiran of India continued their winning spree, overcoming Bangladesh GM Niaz Murshed and B S Shivanandan of India respectively.

In other important matches, Russian ninth seed T Vakhidot defeated Dinesh Sharma of India to take his points tally to two while Zhang Peng Xiang of China drew with compatriot Wang Yo. Both the players have 1.5 points each to their credit.

D Harika of India recorded her first win when she downed Intikhan Alam of Bangladesh while M R Venkatesh of India drew with Vladimirov Evgeny of Russia in 56 moves.

Important second round results: Dibyendu Barua (2) bt N Sudhakar Babu (1), S S Ganguly (1) drew with Parimarjan Negi (.5), Zhang Peng Xiang (1.5) drew with Wang Yo (1.5), T Vakhidot (2) bt Dinesh Sharma (1), D Harika (1) bt Intikhan Alam (0), M R Venkatesh (1.5) drew with Vladimirov Evgeny (1.5).