Unstoppable Giri notches his fifth straight victory

By Sports Reporter/DohaTop seed Anish Giri of the Netherlands maintained his reputation as he defeated the third-seed GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan in the fifth round of Qatar Masters Open 2014 to emerge with a perfect score of five.Mamedyarov, who is only two spots behind him in the ratings, in a sharp opening played too fast and miscalculated to let the Dutch star secure victory after just 21 moves.With the victory the 20-year-old Dutch star, who won the previous round with white pieces in a mere 18 moves against Mikhailo Oleksienko of Ukraine, emerged as the hot favourite for the crown. With five points from as many games, Giri is now followed by Nils Grandelius of Sweden 4.5 points, who defeated another favourite Pavel Eljanov of Ukraine.Former world champion Vladimir Kramnik from Russia, who started with two draws, but then won his next three, is back in the business.Advertised as ‘the strongest open in history,’ the Qatar Masters Open hasn’t disappointed both — the chess fans and the participants. Each day the tournament has seen great fights in this group with only players rated higher than 2200, and no less than 14 GMs rated 2700 or higher.Kramnik could only manage a draw with GM Stelios Halkias and Sundar Shyam and lost 6.3 points. The Russian GM had to work hard for his full point in round three against India’s Das Debashis and finally won a smooth game in round four, to be back in the business.Former world junior champion Abhijeet Gupta missed out on his chances but still got an easy draw against fourth seeded Frenchman Maxime Vachier Lagrave. Catching Lagrave in an unfamiliar territory, Gupta was not quite happy that he could not press for more against a member of the elite club and the game quickly fizzled out to a draw leaving the Indian with 3.5 points out of five rounds.With four rounds still to come, Gupta and highest-rated Indian P Harikrishna are on 3.5 points each and still in with a chance to catch up in this strongest open tournament of the world. The Indians will clash with each other in the sixth round now.A pack of eight players, including Kramnik are on four points apiece, trying to give the leaders a run for their money. Kramnik seems to have found his rhythm after draws in the first two games as he went about business-as-usual in his technical triumph over Andrey Vovk of Ukraine.P Harikrishna was held to an easy draw by Eltaj Safarli of Azerbaijan. It was a Ruy Lopez wherein the Azeri took a risk-free approach and repeated the moves early to split the point in just 22 moves.Young Aravindh Chithambaram got a good result at the expense of Polish Grandmaster Alexander Mista. Chithambaram inched closer to the 2500 rating mark with this victory - a feat he needs to touch or cross to become the next Grandmaster of the country.