Eight players shared the lead tallying full points each at the end of the third round of LIC Kolkata Open Chess Tournament, here on Wednesday. The day seemed to stablise for the fancied names after the first two rounds produced a few upsets.
Many of the prominent Grandmasters in the field gave delightful displays of their techniques, carving out wins by playing flawless chess late into the endgame.
Top seeded Nigel Short of England revealed his creative side by developing his king-knight to the h6 square on the fourth move itself from the black side of an irregular Queen-pawn opening against IM Shyam Nikhil.
Patiently manoeuvring and improving his position throughout the middle-game, Short entered a major pieces ending with a slight advantage, and converted into a win in 47 moves by keeping his opponent in constant pressure.
Ivan Rozum of Russia was another Grandmaster who showed his technical superiority in a rook endgame over young Arjun Kalyan of India. Rated at 2581, Rozum won a pawn in the middle-game and patiently converted his advantage in a Rook ending lasting 46 moves.
Similar method of play saw local Grandmaster Deep Sengupta scoring a facile win over teenaged IM Siva Mahadevan in a Guico Piano game leading to a minor-pieces ending in 43 moves.
Important Results (third round): Shyam Nikhil 2 lost to Nigel Short (Eng) 3, K. Rathnakaran 2.5 drew with Aravindh Chithambaram 2.5, Ivan Rozum (Rus) 3 bt Arjun Kalyan 2, Anand Nadar 2.5 drew with Sandipan Chanda 2.5, Deep Sengupta 3 bt Siva Mahadevan 2, Koustav Chattarjee 2.5 drew with Vladimir Burmakin (Rus) 2.5, Narayanan Srinath 3 bt Kaustuv Kundu 2, Saravana Krishnan 2.5 drew with Shyam Sundar 2.5, Srijit Paul 2.5 drew with Tran Tuan Minh (Vie) 2.5, Vantika Agrawal 2 lost to Erigaisi Arjun 3, N.R. Vignesh 3 bt Rajdeep Sarkar 2, Muhammad Khusenkhojaev (Taj) 3 bt Ravi Teja 2, S. Kidambi 2.5 bt D.V. Prasad 2.5, Nikhil Dixit 2 lost to S. Nitin (3).
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