Delhi International Open: Three Indians among five leaders

Young trio of D. Gukesh, N. R. Visakh and Rohit Krishna obtain creditable draws in the fourth round.

Debashis Das (right) defeated Australia's Rishi Sardana to be among the five leaders at four points. Photo: Special Arrangement

Young Indian talent continued to get its share of attention after some fiercely-fought draws and few decisive encounters on the leading boards in the fourth round of the Delhi International Open chess tournament here on Friday.

After D. Gukesh, N. R. Visakh and Rohit Krishna proved equal to Russian Grandmasters Alexandr Predke, Ivan Rozum and Georgia’s Luka Paichadze — seeded two, five and seven — 16-year-old Neelash Saha continued his splendid run to stay among the leaders.

The day that began with 23 leaders ended with just five in the lead.

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Besides Saha, who upstaged Armenian GM Karen Movsziszian, others in the leaders’ group were Diptayan Ghosh, Debashis Das and the two Iranians, former champion Ehsan Ghaem Maghami and Masoud Mosadeghpour.

Diptayan beats Das

In fact, Diptayan was the only winner from the top-seven boards following his 37-move triumph over Bengal team-mate Sayantan Das. Debashis proved superior over Australia’s Rishi Sardana, who recently emerged winner in Mumbai. Debashis capitalised on a late error from Rishi and cashed in on the queenside pawn-majority to gain a knight on way to a 71-move victory.

Former winner Abhijeet Gupta and two-time National champion M. Karthikeyan appeared to be heading for expected triumphs over Vikramaditya Kulkarni and Arpita Mukherjee but overlooked the opportunity that allowed their rivals to force a draw following perpetual checks.

Surprises continued when Grandmaster Karthik Venkataraman, also the reigning National junior champion, surprisingly lost to Himal Gusain and Ankit Gajwa upset Commonwealth champion P. Karthikeyan.

• D. Gukesh (3.5) drew with Alexandr Predke (Rus, 3.5);
• Ivan Rozum (Rus, 3.5) drew with N. R. Visakh (3.5);
• Ziaur Rahma (Ban, 3.5) drew with Aleksej Aleksandrov (Blr, 3.5);
• Muhammad Khusenkhojaev (Tjk, 3.5) drew with Arjun Erigaisi (3.5);
• Diptayan Ghosh (4) bt Sayantan Das (3);
• Mohammad Nubairshah Shaikh (3.5) drew with Deepan Chakkravarthy (3.5);
• Kirill Stupak (Blr, 3.5) drew with Mikulas Manik (Svk, 3.5);
• Debashis Das (4) bt Rishi Sardana (Aus, 3);
• Attila Czebe (Hun, 3) lost to Ehsan Ghaem Maghami (Iri, 4);
• Masoud Mosadeghpour (Iri, 4) bt Moheb Ameir (Egy, 3);
• Karen Movsziszian (Arm, 3) lost to Neelash Saha (4);
• Farrukh Amontov (Tjk, 3.5) bt Aditya Mittal (3).