Indian International Masters Ramnath Bhuvanesh and Rathnakaran stunned higher rated Grandmasters, moving into shared lead with 3.0 points after the third round of the 7th Chennai International Open Grandmaster Chess Tournament at Nehru Stadium, Chennai here today.
Top seed Grandmaster Ivan Popov of Russia (2.5) was held to a draw by GM Norm hold Siddharth Ravichandran in a short game that lasted 24 moves. Popov remains half a point behind the bunch of leaders.
Ramnath Bhuvanesh and Rathnakaran ruled the day, scoring over Grandmasters Alberto David (Italy) and Andrey Baryshpolets (Ukraine) in the second and third boards.
Iasman Inna (France) playing Ganesh Babu S (India)
Sharing the lead with Ramnath and Rathnakaran were – GM Cristhian Cruz (Peru), Karthikeyan Murali, Dhopade S Swapnil, Shardul Gagare, Kelkar Abhishek (all India) and Van Huy Nguyen (Vietnam), all at 3.0 points.
The morning round saw two Grandmasters tasting defeat at the hands of lower ranked players. GMs Evdokimov and Nguyen Duc Hoa lost to Indian duo Abhishek Kelkar and Hemant Sharma respectively.
Category “A” – Main Results Round 3 (Indians unless specified):
Siddharth Ravichandran (2.5) drew with Ivan Popov (Rus) 2.5, Alberto David (Ita) 2 lost to Bhuvanesh R Ramnath (3), Andrey Baryshpolets (Ukr) 2 lost to K Rathnakaran (3), Cristhian Cruz (Per) 3 bt NR Visakh (2), Marat Dzhumaev (Uzb) 2.5 drew with NR Vignesh (2.5), Murali Karthikeyan (3) bt Vishwesh C Sai (2), B Kumaran (2) lost to Van Huy Nguyen (Vie) 3, B S Shivananda (2) lost to S Dhopade Swapnil (3), P Maheswaran (2) drew with Sabino Brunello (Ita) 2, Sameer Kathmale (1.5) lost to Mikhail Mozharov (Rus) 2.5
Category “A” – Main Results Round 2 (Indians unless specified):
Popov Ivan (Rus) 2 bt Gahan MG (1), Pranav Vijay (1) lost to David Alberto (Ita) 2, Murali Krishnan BT (1) lost to Baryshpolets Andrey (Ukr) 2, Mozharov Mikhail (Rus) 1.5 drew with Meher Chinna Reddy CH (1.5), Safranska Anda (Fra) 1 lost to Cruz Cristhian (Per) 2, Evdokimov Alexander A (Rus) 1 lost to Abhishek Kelkar (2), Lokesh P (1) lost to Dzhumaev Marat (Uzb) 2, Gasanov Eldar (Ukr) 1.5 drew with Kathmale Sameer (1.5), Hemant Sharma (2) bt Nguyen Duc Hoa (Vie) 1, Shetty Rahul (1) lost to Karthikeyan Murali (2)
Category “B” – Main Results Round 3:
Shakthi Vishal J (2.5) drew with Anilkumar OT (2.5), Manigandan S S (3) bt Sathyanarayanan V (2), Sanjay Thiruvengadam (2.5) drew with Dusthageer Ibrahim M (2.5), Raju S (3) bt Balachandar E (2), Saroja K (2.5) drew with Visveshwar A (2.5), Rahul S (3) bt Anandha Venkatesan (2), Shreyas M (2) lost to Karthick Narayanan S (3), Panaiappan S (2) lost to Isha Sharma (3), Murugan M (2) lost to Dileep Kumar R (3), Abir Sinha (3) bt Lakshmi C (2)
Category “B” – Main Results Round 2:
Anil Kumar O T (2) bt Martin Samuel (1), Natarajan M (1) lost to Manigandan S S (2), Dusthageer Ibrahim M (2) bt Ajay Karthikeyan (1), Sathananthan I (1.5) drew with Uttam Sharma (1.5), Sahu Rajendra Kumar (1.5) drew with Poojakanth M (1.5), Reetish Padhi (2) bt Vijaya Sharathy (1), Gopalakrishnan K (1.5) drew with Gukesh D (1.5), Krithigga K (1.5) drew with Nanda Kumar T S (1.5), Arjun B (2) bt Venkatakrishna R V (1), Muthu Hareeswaran S (1) lost to Raju S (2)
R R Vasudevan
Press Officer
