Delhi Int’l Open Grandmasters: Five share lead in fourth round

In sharp contrast to the string of upsets on Friday, games on the leading boards produced anticipated results in the fourth round of the Delhi International Open on Saturday.

Peru's 18-year-old Grandmaster Jose Eduardo Martinez Alcantara who scored an impressive victory on the top board against International Master Himal Gusain to share the lead with four others at four points in the Delhi International Open Grandmasters Chess Tournament in New Delhi on Saturday.

In sharp contrast to the string of upsets on Friday, games on the leading boards produced anticipated results in the fourth round of the Delhi International Open Grandmasters chess tournament here on Saturday. Five leaders, including Grandmaster Karthik Venkataraman and International Master C. R. G. Krishna, maintained their all-win sequence to reach four points. Six players followed at 3.5 points. After three rounds of ‘accelerated pairings,’ normal pairings meant at least two overnight leaders got to play against far lower-rated rivals on the third and fourth boards. The beneficiaries were Karthik and Krishna who faced rivals who were rated 786 and 924 points lower. Clearly, the lop-sided nature of pairings on the top four boards saw stronger players winning with black pieces. Of the lot, Niranjan Navalgund fought the toughest against eighth seeded GM Aleksej Aleksandrov and stretched him to 70 moves.

READ | Indian chess in 2019: Players continue to make strong moves On the top board, Peru’s 18-year-old Grandmaster Jose Eduardo Martinez Alcantaram, seeded four, stopped International Master Himal Gusain in an impressive manner. He traded a rook for a bishop and then used queen and bishop-pair to wreck havoc in 47 moves. In the games involving those at 2.5 points, seven games ended as draws and four of the five decisive games witnessed victory for those playing with white pieces. Among these, Indonesia’s Theolifus Taher Yoseph held second seed Pavel Ponkratov, Saptarshi Roy shared a point with third seed M. Karthikeyan, seasoned International Master proved equal to seventh seed Nodirbek Yakubboev and young Sri Lankan Kevin Ranidu Silva (rated 1854) made a mockery of rating by proving equal to 14th seeded GM Alexei Fedorov (2562).

 

Leading fourth-round results (Indians unless stated): Himal Gusain (3) lost to Jose Eduardo Martinez Alcantara (Per, 4); Niranjan Navalgund (3) lost to Aleksej Aleksandrov (Blr, 4); Ishvi Aggarwal (3) lost to Karthik Venkataraman (4); Rudrashish Chakraborty (3) lost to C. R. G. Krishna (4); Ziaur Rahman (Ban, 4) bt Abdelrahman Hesham (Egy, 3); Farrukh Amonatov (Tjk, 3.5) bt Al Muthaiah (3); Theolifus Taher Yoseph (Ina, 3) drew with Pavel Ponkratov (Rus, 3); M. Karthikeyan (3) drew with Saptarshi Roy (3); Nodirbek Yaubboev (Uzb, 3) drew with P. Shyam Nikhil (3); Ivan Rozum (Rus, 3.5) bt Marat Dzhumaev (Uzb, 2.5).