First victory for resilient Gupta

Hunting for an International Master norm, Sagar Shah played a solid game to hold Grandmaster Yuri Solodovnichenko of Ukraine while former Junior World champion Abhijeet Gupta recovered to score his first victory in the second round of Grand Europe Albena chess tournament here.

After an eventful draw in the first round, Gupta made some recovery of sorts at the expense of Bulgarian veteran Metodi Stoinev and inched himself up to 1.5 points from his two games.
It turned out to be another good day for three Indian Grandmasters-in-waiting as they all scored needful victories over lower ranked opponents.

Vishnu Prasanna did not face many troubles and accounted for talented Indonesian girl Irine Kharisma Sukandar and Ashwin Jayaram outwitted Mario Vutov of Bulgaria.

Turkish Yildiz Cavusoglu found a strong opponent in Anurag Mahamal while Swapnil Dhopade warded off the challenge of Dimitar Marholev.

On the flip side from the Indian perspective, N Raghavi who had scored a minor upset in the first round while holding Ivaljo Enchev to a draw, lost to Olga Dolzhikova of Norway.

Important results (Round II, Indians unless stated): Sergey Shurygin (Rus, 1) lt to Constantin Lupulescu (Rou, 2); Vadim Skomorokhin (Rus, 1) lt to Hrant Melkumyan (Arm, 2): Tiberiu-Marian Georgescu (Rou, 2) bt Avetik Grigoryan (Arm, 1); David Paravyan (Rus, 2) bt Dragan Solak (Tur, 1); Vladislav Nevednichy (Rou, 2) bt Iveri Chighladze (Geo, 1); Sagar Shah (1.5) drew with Yuri Solodovnichenko (Ukr, 1.5); V Vishnu Prasanna (2) bt Irine Kharisma Sukandar (Ina, 1); Ashwin Jayaram (2) bt Mario Vutov (Bul, 1); Dimitar Marholev (Bul, 1) lt to Swapnil S Dhopade (2); Yildiz Cavusoglu  (Tur, 1) lt to Anurag Mhamal (2); Abhijeet Gupta (1.5) bt Metodi Stoinev (Bul, 0.5); Olga Dolzhikova (Nor, 1.5) bt N Raghavi (0.5).