PINOY IM NOLTE SPLIT THE POINT WITH UZBEK GM, NEARS GM NORM

FILIPINO International Master Rolando Nolte (2412) is near achieving his grandmaster norm after salvaging a draw over GM Shukhrat Safin (2493) of Uzbekistan using the white pieces after 50 moves of Ruy Lopez Opening in the seventh round of 3rd Kolkata Open International Grandmasters Chess Tournament last Sunday at the Gorky Sadan, Kolkata, India.

The undefeated Quezon City based Nolte now has 5.0 points from 3 wins, 4 draws in seven outings to share 8th to 21st placers.

Nolte's eight round opponent is IM Enamul Hossain (2522) of Bangladesh and if luckily beat the Bangladesh GM or manage a draw he will obtain his grandmaster norm according to National Chess Federation of the Philippines (NCFP) president Prospero "Butch" Pichay Jr.

"Kung mananalo o makatabla si (Rolando) Nolte sa laban niya kay (Enamul) Hossain ay tiyak na makukuha niya ang grandmaster norm. So far so good ang performance ni (Rolando) Nolte." Pichay referring 1 win and 4 draws of (Rolando) Nolte against the five grandmasters opponent.

After winning his first tow round match, Nolte split the point with GM Das Neelotpal (2486) of India in third, GM Vladimir Dobrov (2501) of Russia in the fourth and GM RB Ramesh (2473) of India in the fifth round and upset Grandmaster Smbat Lputian (2616) of Armenia in the sixth round and drew with GM Safin in the seventh round.

Meanwhile, IM Chito Garma (2383) also settled for a truce with WIM Kruttika Nadig (2208) of India to join IM Oliver Barbosa (2410) in the 29th to 49th placers with 4.0 points each. Barbosa bowed to world junior champion GM Ahmed Adly (2551) of Egypt.

Barbosa battles Singh Gurpreet Pal of India in the eight round while Garma takes on Shashikant Kutwal of India in this annual event using a 10 round Swiss-system format.

GM Humpy Koneru (2612), on the other hand bested countryman GM Dibyendu Barua (2491) of India to score 5.5 points. She was tied at 1st to 7th placers with top seed GM Krishnan Sasikiran (2677), GM Chanda Sandipan (2593) and IM Roy Saptarshi (2404) of India, GM Victor Laznicka (2595) of Czech Republic, GM Nguyen Anh Dung (2525) of Vietnam and GM Ziaur Rahman (2492) of Bangladesh.

Contributed by MARLON BERNARDINO