Chennai Open chess: India's International Masters Srihari, Nitin among leaders

Indian players L R Srihari, S Nitin and Srijit Paul were the leaders after four rounds at the 13th Chennai Open International Grandmaster Chess Tournament 2022

Eleven Grandmasters and 14 International Masters are taking part in the 275-player 10-round Swiss tournament which carries a total prize money of Rs 15 lakh.

International Masters Srihari, Nitin and Srijit Paul defeated Arjun Tiwari (India), Luong Phuong Hanh and Nguyen Thanh THuy Tien, both of Vietnam, respectively in round four to join top-seed Boris Savchenko and Belarus' Kirill Stupak on four points.

Also on four points and in joint lead are: Vahe Baghdasaryan (Armenia), Jubin Jimmy (India) and Asyl Abdyjapar (Kyrgyzstan).

In the upset of the day, Chennai lad B Vignesh got the better of Grandmaster Nguyen Van Huy of Vietnam. In a quiet middle game the Vietnamese GM overlooked an intervening check when his position collapsed in 33 moves. He had in the earlier round, held experienced Grandmaster Fedorov Alexei (Belarus) to a draw in a Guicco Piano game that lasted 50 moves.

Earlier, highly rated IM Aronyak Ghosh (Elo 2494) went down to Vietnamese Woman International Master Nguyen Thanh Thuy Tien (Elo 1996) in the third round.

As many as 11 Grandmasters and 14 International Masters are taking part in the 275-player 10-round Swiss tournament which carries a total prize money of Rs 15 lakh.