Bharat Subramaniyam upsets Chinese GM, shares top spot in Aeroflot Open chess

Playing with white pieces, Subramaniyam, an International Master, outlasted Zhou in a long-drawn game in 74 moves for his third win in the tournament.

Meanwhile, in the 34th Cannes Open in France, young Indian player D Gukesh, the world’s second youngest Grandmaster ever, was in the lead.

India’s 13-year-old Bharat Subramaniyam stunned Chinese Grandmaster Jiancho Zhou in the fourth round to jump to joint top spot in the ‘A’ group of the Aeroflot Open chess tournament here.

Playing with white pieces, Subramaniyam, an International Master, outlasted Zhou in a long-drawn game in 74 moves for his third win in the tournament on Saturday.

He now shares the top spot with Azerbaijan GM Rauf Mamedov, who was held to a draw by India’s S P Sethuraman. Both Subramaniyam and Mamedov have 3.5 points.

Subramaniyam had earlier registered his second victory in the event by beating the second seeded Gabriel Sargissian.

The whiz kid IM Bharat Subramaniyam (2402) continued his fantastic run by beating GM Jianchao Zhou (2622) with the white pieces and is now leading the tournament along with Mamedov Rauf with 3.5/4 in the Aeroflot Open 2020 (A) pic.twitter.com/daZ4r8SyUT

— Chess.com - India (@chesscom_in) February 23, 2020

 

Sethuraman and compatriot B Adhiban are in joint second with six others, on three points. Adhiban outclassed Turkey’s Emre Can to stay close to the leaders.

Top-seeded Russian Vladislav Artemiev, one of the highly-rated youngsters to emerge in recent times, took on another prodigy, R Praggnanandhaa of India and settled for a draw in 54 moves.

Meanwhile, in the 34th Cannes Open in France, young Indian player D Gukesh, the world’s second youngest Grandmaster ever, was in the lead with two others -- China’s Chongseng Zeng and Frenchman Harutyun Bareghyan -- with 6.5 points after eight rounds.

Gukesh beat Lucas Di Nicolantonio in the eighth round in 72 moves.

Important Results of Aeroflot Open ‘A’ Group 4th round: S P Sethuraman (IND) 3 drew with Rauf Mamedov (AZE) 3.5; Bharat Subramaniyam (IND) 3.5 beat Jiancho Zhou (CHN) 2.5; B Adhiban (IND) 3 beat Emre Can (TUR) 2; Vladislav Artemiev (Russia) 2.5 drew with R Praggnanandhaa (IND) 2.5; Vaibhav Suri (IND) 2.5 drew with Aravindh Chithambaram 2.5; SL Narayanan (IND) 2.5 drew with Abhimanyu Puranik (IND) 2.5; N R Visakh (IND) 2.5 drew with Bogdan-Daniel Deac 2.5; M Pranesh (IND) 2.5 drew with Rasmus Svane 2.5; Karthikeyan Murali (IND) 2.5 drew with Evgeny Zanan 2.5; David Paravyan 3 drew with Pouya Idani 3.