Three Indians J Deepan Chakkravarthy of Tamil Nadu, Abhijit Kunte of PSPB and Vidit Santosh Gujrathi of Maharashtra and one Bangladesh grandmaster Abdulla Al-Rakib share the lead with three points each at the end of third round of the 19th International Open Grandmasters Chess tournament, organised by Alekhine Chess Club at Kolkata, today.
In a Benoni defence on the top board, Levan Pantsulaia of Georgia had to forego his rook, getting only a bishop in compensation from Abdulla. In the resultant queen and rook vs queen and knight ending, Abdulla used his extra pawn to register a win in 62 moves.
Abdulla Al-Rakib of Bangladesh defeated higher seeded Pantsulaia Levan of Georgia
Bangladesh had a field day today, as its another grandmaster Ziaur Rahman caused the biggest upset of the tournament so far, by beating the top seed Nigel Short of England. Ziaur deviated from the regular Nimzo Indian defence to exchange the queens as early as on 8th move. He capitalised on some weak moves by Short to position his rooks strongly. Fearing the loss of further materials, Short resigned after 28 moves.
Adopting Nimzo Indian defence against Debashis Das, former under 14 world champion Vidit Santosh Gujrathi of Maharashtra launched a heavy attack on the king side, with his queen, rooks and bishop. When Vidit sacrificed his bishop by playing B x h3, Debashis realised the danger and gave up the fight immediately after 22 moves.
Top seeded Nigel Short of England lost to Ziaur Rahman of Bangladesh
In a Slav defence, former Asian Junior champion Deepan Chakkaravarthy of Tamil Nadu sacrificed his bishop on the 13th move against 2012 Commonwealth champion MR Lalith Babu of PSPB. To escape from his queen being cornered, Lalith Babu had to return the piece after seven moves, bringing parity to the game. Deepan gained a pawn in the end game and his connected pawns at the centre were vital to force a win in 60 moves.
Overnight leaders from West Bengal suffered a setback, when youngster Diptayan Ghosh had to be content with a draw against Oliver Barbosa of Philippines in a Slav defence game. Former national champion Abhijit Kunte of PSPB, commencing with Sicilain defence, continued his good run by beating Deep Sengupta, Kolkata’s highest ranked player in the tournament.
Report by IA Rathinam Anantharam
2012 Commonwealth champion MR Lalith Babu lost to former Asian Junior champion Deepan Chakkaravarthy
Round 3 top results:
GM Abdulla Al-Rakib BAN 2518 – GM Pantsulaia Levan GEO 2606 1 – 0
GM Debashis Das IND 2508 – GM Vidit Santosh Gujrathi IND 2602 0 – 1
GM Lalith Babu M.R. IND 2585 – GM Deepan Chakkravarthy J. IND 2496 0 – 1
GM Barbosa Oliver PHI 2564 – IM Ghosh Diptayan IND 2481 ½ – ½
GM Sengupta Deep IND 2529 – GM Kunte Abhijit IND 2439 0 – 1
GM Short Nigel D ENG 2674 – GM Rahman Ziaur BAN 2486 0 – 1
GM Haznedaroglu Kivanc TUR 2462 – GM Fedorchuk Sergey A. UKR 2647 1 – 0
GM Landa Konstantin RUS 2645 – IM Ly Moulthun AUS 2429 ½ – ½
IM Shyam Nikil P. IND 2431 – GM Grigoryan Avetik ARM 2583 ½ – ½
IM Palit Somak IND 2421 – GM Gopal G.N. IND 2558 ½ – ½
Krishna C.R.G. IND 2317 – GM Mchedlishvili Mikheil GEO 2639 ½ – ½
GM Adhiban B. IND 2608 – Ravi Teja S. IND 2367 1 – 0
GM Sethuraman S.P. IND 2578 – IM Karthikeyan P. IND 2355 ½ – ½
Sagar Shah IND 2304 – GM Shyam Sundar M. IND 2507 0 – 1
GM Danielsen Henrik ISL 2501 – IM Konguvel Ponnuswamy IND 2347 ½ – ½
GM Arun Prasad S. IND 2477 – Akash Pc Iyer IND 2263 1 – 0
