Dubai Open: Praggnanandhaa marches on, Arjun held

Fourth seed R. Praggnanandhaa’s march continued as he outplayed Armenia’s Aram Hakobyan in 48 moves to share the lead with Kazakhstan’s Rinat Jumabayev after four rounds of the Dubai Open.

R. Praggnanandhaa in action. (File Photo) | Photo Credit: -

Fourth seed R. Praggnanandhaa’s march continued as he outplayed Armenia’s Aram Hakobyan in 48 moves to share the lead with Kazakhstan’s Rinat Jumabayev after four rounds of the Dubai Open chess tournament in Dubai on Tuesday.

By extending their winning run, the leaders have four points and clash in the fifth round.

Overnight joint leader Arjun Erigaisi drew with Serbia’s Aleksandar Indjic to slip to the joint-third spot at 3.5 points with six others, including S. P. Sethuraman and Ayush Sharma.

Among the day’s notable performers was 2158-rated Ayush who stunned Grandmaster Arjun Kalyan (2513).

After holding top seed Alexandr Predke in the third round, N. R .Vignesh drew with third-seeded Iranian Amin Tabatabaei, L. R. Srihari proved equal to fancied German Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu while Raunak Sadhwani was lucky to escape with a draw against in-form compatriot Aditya Samant.

Leading results (Indians unless stated):

Fourth round: Aleksandar Indjic (Srb, 3.5) drew with Arjun Erigaisi (3.5); R. Praggnanandhaa (4) bt Aram Hakobyan (Arm, 3); Mahammad Muradli (Aze, 3.5) drew with Vladimir Akopian (USA, 3.5); Rinat Jumabayev (Kaz, 4) bt Sahaj Grover (3); Ortik Nigmatov (Uzb, 2.5) lost to Alexandr Predke (FIDE, 3.5); N. R. Vignesh (3) drew with Amin Tabatabaei (Iri, 3); Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu (Ger, 3) drew with L. R. Srihari (3); Seyed Kian Poormosavi (Iri, 3) drew with Abhijeet Gupta (3); S. P. Sethuraman (3.5) bt V. S. Rathnavel (2.5); Raunak Sadhwani (3) drew with Aditya Samant (3); Antonio Dcunha Viani (3) drew with Aravindh Chithambaram (3); Harsha Bharathakoti (3) drew with Ziaur Rahman (Ban, 3); Arjun Kalyan (2.5) lost to Ayush Sharma (3.5).