C.R.G. Krishna surprised ninth-seeded Russian Grandmaster Alexander Evdokimov to join top seed Abhijeet Gupta and three others in the lead with perfect scores after three rounds of the Rs. 30-lakh Parsvnath Delhi International Open chess tournament here on Saturday.
Krishna’s fierce kingside offensive of the black’s castled king proved decisive in 50 moves. Gupta’s title-defence progressed with a well-worked out 33-move victory over P. Karthikeyan while Grover got past M.G. Gahan. Others sharing the lead at three points were Deepan Chakkravarthy and the fourth-seeded Italian GM David Alberto.
Earlier, lesser-known Indians accounted for five overseas Grandmasters to light up the proceedings in the second round. Tamil Nadu’s M. Kunal upstaged sixth-seeded Italian Sabino Brunello in 48 moves while Pradeep Kumar, playing black, accounted for 11th-seeded Ukrainian Eldar Gasanov in 47 moves.
On the adjacent board, M.G. Gahan brought down 12th-seeded Vietnamese Nguyen Duc Hoa after 38 turns. Sitting behind black pieces, Abhishek Kelkar and Nishant Malhotra had the satisfaction of beating Bangladesh’s Ziaur Rahman and Frenchman Vladimir Lazarev, seeded 15th and 41st, to complete a forgettable round for the overseas Grandmasters.
Of these, Kunal went on to hold eighth-seeded Ukrainian GM Andrey Baryshpolets while Pradeep, Kelkar and Malhotra drew with International Masters N. Srinath, Saptarshi Roy and Prasanna Rao, in that order, to continue their unbeaten streak.
The results: Third round: P. Karthikeyan (2) lost to Abhijeet Gupta (3); David Alberto (Ita, 3) bt Deigo Del Rey (Esp, 2); S. Nitin (2.5) drew with Cristhian Cruz (Per, 2.5); Andrey Baryshpolets (Ukr, 2.5) drew with M. Kunal (2.5); C.R.G. Krishna (3) bt Alexander Evdokimov (Rus, 2); Sahaj Grover (3) bt M.G. Gahan (2); Deepan Chakkravarthy (3) bt R. Hari Krishan (2); Pradeep Kumar (2.5) drew with N. Srinath (2.5); Jonathan Cruz (Per, 2.5) drew with Aradhya Garg (2.5); Abhishek Kelkar (2.5) drew with Saptarshi Roy (2.5); Neelotpal Das (2.5) drew with Aniruddha Deshpande (2.5); Nishant Malhotra (2.5) drew with Prasanna Rao (2.5).
Second round: Gupta bt N.R. Vignesh; Anton Demchenko (Rus) drew with Ravi Teja; Jose Miguel Ortega (Esp) lost to David Alberto (Ita); M. Kunal bt Sabino Brunello (Ita); Cristhian Cruz (Per) bt Himal Gusain; B. Harsha lost to Andrey Bryshpolets (Ukr); Alexander Evdokimov (Rus) bt Samer Kathmale; B.S. Shivananda lost to Sahaj Grover; Eldar Gasanov (Ukr) lost to Pradeep Kumar; M. G. Gahan bt Nguyen Duc Hoa (Vie); Ziaur Rahamn (Ban) lost to Abhishek Kelkar; Vladimir Lazarev (Fra) lost to Nishant Malhotra.
