Delhi International Chess: Ponkratov escapes defeat; Gukesh, Abhijeet lose

Local boy Aryan Varshney let second seed Ponkratov off the hook under time-pressure, blundered and got checkmated.

File picture of D. Gukesh.

Favourite Arjun Erigaisi, M. R. Lalith Babu and P. Iniyan were among the 17 leaders but leading seeds Pavel Ponkratov, Abhijeet Gupta, S. P. Sethuraman, Neuris Delgado Ramirez and D. Gukesh fell back on a day of upsets in the Delhi International Open chess tournament here on Wednesday.

Local boy Aryan Varshney let second seed Ponkratov off the hook under time-pressure, blundered and got checkmated.

But the day truly belonged to Rohith Krishna. The youngster upstaged Grandmaster Deepan Chakkravarthy and returned to account for third seed Abhijeet.

Ramirez, seeded four, drew with Anuj Srivatri, much like fifth seed S. P. Sethuraman did it with fellow Tamil Nadu rival P. Shyamnikhil. The day proved memorable for Sri Lanka’s Dilshan Liyanage who upstaged sixth seed Gukesh and drew with another Grandmaster, Karthik Venkataraman.

Important results (Indians unless stated)

Third round: Ortik Nigmatov (Uzb, 2) lost to Arjun Erigaisi (3); P. Shyamnikhil (2.5) drew with S. P. Sethuraman (2.5); Saptarshi Roy (2) lost to Lalith Babu (3); N. R. Visakh (3) bt Arash Tahbaz (Iri, 2); P. Iniyan (3) bt Adbimalik Abdisalimov (Uzb, 2); Shahil Dey (3) bt Masoud Mosadeghpour (Iri, 2); Mitrabha Guha (3) bt Himal Gusain (2); Syed Kian Poormosavi (Iri, 3) bt Adham Fawzy (Egy, 2); Karthik Venkataraman (2.5) drew with Dilshan Liyanage (Sri, 2.5); Azer Mirzoev (Aze, 3) bt Srija Seshadri (2); S. Rohith Krishna (2.5) bt Abhijeet Gupta (1.5).

Second round: Sidhant Mohapatra drew with Pavel Ponkratov (Rus); Abhijeet Gupta drew with Padmini Rout; Anuj Shrivatri drew with Neuris Delgado Ramirez (Col); Dilshan Liyanage (Sri) bt D. Gukesh; Deepan Chakkravarthy drew with Rohith Krishna; Arjun Kalyan drew with Dinesh
Sharma; Aaryan Varshney drew with Harsha Bharathakoti: V. S. Raahul lost to Seyed Kian Poormosavi (Iri); Sayantan Das drew with K. Priyanka; Neelash Saha drew with Sakshi Chitlange; N. R. Vignesh drew with P. Michelle Catherina; Shreyas Seshadri bt Camilo Rioas Cristhian
(Col); Parnali Dharia lost to Chaitanya Mogili; V. Varshini drew with Kahtun Baghirova (Aze).