Barua finishes creditable 5th

Grandmaster Dibyendu Barua finished a creditable fifth in the Hogehschool Zeeland International Chess tournament after he settled for a draw with GM John Wan Der Wiel of Holland in the 9th and final round, in Vlissengen, the Netherlands.

The Indian had the best tiebreak score among seven pointers after the tie was resolved in this nine-round Swiss event, deservedly won by second seeded Polish Grandmaster Michal Krasenkow.

Krasenkow scored a quick victory over top seed Mikhail Gurevich of Turkey in his final round game and ended with eight points, a half point clear of nearest rivals GM Vyacheslav Ikonnikov of Russia, and Dutch duo of GMs Erwin L'Ami and Friso Nijboer respectively.

On a day when world's youngest Grandmaster Parimarjan Negi failed to break the defenses of Ziska Helgi Dam and had to agree for a draw, the other three Indians ended on a positive note, winning their last round games.

As a result of his draw after a fantastic performance till the seventh round of this event, Negi finished tied 12th on 6.5 points and giving him company was Saptarshi Roy along with nine others.

Roy defeated IM Bart Michiels of Belgium in the final round.

International Masters Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury and Roktim Bandyopadhyay ended their Dutch tour with easy victories over Dutchmen Arlette Van Weersel and Anton Rosmuller respectively and finished with an identical score of 6 points.

Barua tried hard for a victory against Wiel but the wily Dutch was on his guard in a Sicilian Accelerated Sveshnikov game where the Indian played white.

Launching an offense on the queen side after finding the center locked, Barua had to pay quite a lot of attention on the king side as Wiel got his counter play rolling on that flank with timely deployment of pieces.

With his king coming under firing line Barua spotted a hole in black's position and opened up the center in thematic fashion but despite doing his best he could not stop Wile from gaining enough ground against his own weakened king. The game was drawn after 34 moves.

Negi could do little against a determined Dam who made his International Master norm after drawing with the Indian super talent.

Playing the white side of a Sicilian Nazdorf, Negi was subjected to wild tactical complications that resulted in regular exchanges.

The game entered an endgame with few pawns left for anyone to give it a try and subsequent trading of pieces led to a theoretically drawn position after 42 moves when the players shook hands.

Playing for the championship, Michal Krasenkow gave yet another brilliant performance to beat Gurevich. The Marshall gambit by white in a queen pawn game resulted in a disaster as

Krasenkow almost nonchalantly digested the extra pawn and when Gurevich tried to make headways in the center he ended up a piece a less and resigned after just 22 moves.

Important and Indian results final round: Vyacheslav Ikonnikov (Rus, 7) drew with Erwin L'Ami (Ned, 7.5); Mikhail Gurevich (Tur, 6.5) lost to Michal Krasenkow (Pol, 8); Friso Nijboer (Ned, 7.5) beat Steffen Pedersen (Den, 7.5); Dibyendu Barua (Ind, 7) drew with John Van der Wiel (Ned, 7); Perez Rodney (Cub, 6) lost to Konstantin Landa (Rus, 7); Daniel Stellwagen (Ned, 7) beat Berg Klaus (Den, 6); Mikhail Klenburg (Ukr, 6) lost to Li Shilong (Chn, 7); Parimarjan Negi (Ind, 6.5) drew with Ziska Helgi Dam (Ned, 6.5); Unai Garbisu (Esp, 7) beat Dimitri Van Leent (Ned, 6); Koen Leenhouts (Ned, 6) beat Mathias Roeder (Ger, 6); Viorel Iordachescu (Mda, 6.5) beat Evgeni Karasik (Isr, 5.5); Sergey Erenburg (Isr, 6.5) beat Herman Van Riemsdijk (Ned, 5.5); Saptarshi Roy (Ind, 6.5) beat Bart Michiels (5.5); Arlette Van Weersel (Ned, 5) lost to Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury (Ind, 6); Anton Rosmuller (Ned, 5) lost to Roktim Bandyopadhyay (Ind, 6).