International Master Anurag Mahamal came up with a sterling show to checkmate top seeded Grandmaster Tigran Petrosian of Armenia in the second round of Grand Europe Golden Sands International Chess tournament.
In another big upset by an Indian player, International Master Shardul Gagare came up with a remarkable game to outwit Grandmaster Levente Vajda of Romania as it turned out to be a tough day for higher seeds.
While these were the two biggest upsets in the day, IM G A Stany also did his bit by holding highly regarded GM Mircea-Emilian Parligras of Romania to a draw.
Indian girls Bhakti Kulkarni and R. Bharathi continued with their excellent forms to draw with former Russian women’s champion Natalija Pogonina and German International Master Matthias Roeder.
With seven rounds still to come as many as 36 players share the lead and there are ten Indians in the leading pack.
Apart from Mahamal and Gagare, Grandmasters Vidit Gujrathi, S Arun Prasad, M R Venkatesh, M Shyam Sundar and Sahaj Grover maintained a clean slate while Ashwin Jayaram, Swapnil Dhopade and N Srinath also made merry at the expense of lower ranked players.
After a first round draw, highest rated Indian Abhijeet Gupta struck form to beat Petar Arnaudov and took his tally to 1.5 points to be just behind the leaders.
Anurag Mahamal appeared to be I some difficulties in the middle game arising out of an English opening as black when he decided to throw everything at white’s king.
The positional concession came with the attack but it also unsettled Petrosian a great deal as he tried to combat move for move. It was a picturesque finish in the end when Mahamal gave up his queen to force checkmate on the next move.
Gagare certainly played the game of the day and possibly one of his best games ever. It was another English opening in which the Indian youngster played white and launched a queen side offence that gave spatial advantage.
Vajda could not spot an-easy-to-miss tactic and suddenly all white pieces were around black’s king. The end position was spectacular with Gagare’s queen hanging and Vajda resigned on move 35.
Indian results round 2 (Indians unless stated): Tigran Petrosian (Arm, 1) lost to Anurag Mhamal (2); Zbynek Hracek (Cze, 2) beat Eesha Karavade (1); Shardul Gagare (2) beat Levente Vajda (Rou, 1); Mircea—Emilian Parligras (Rou, 1.5) drew with G A Stany (1.5); Vidit Gujrathi (2) beat Irine Kharisma Sukandar (Ina, 1); Alexey Bykov (Rus, 1.5) drew with Deep Sengupta (1.5); Nils Grandelius (Swe, 2) beat Sagar Shah (1); S Arun Prasad (2) beat Alexej Gorbatov (Rus, 1); Noaman Omar (Uae, 1.5) drew with G N Gopal (1.5); Umut Atakisi (Tur, 1) lost to M R Venkatesh (2); M Shyam Sundar (2) beat Valentin Panbukchian (Bul, 1); Sayantan Das lost to Petar G Arnaudov (Bul, 1); Pavel Dimitrov (Bul, 2) beat Debashis Das (1); Sahaj Grover (2) beat Aravindh Chithambaram (1); Stanislav Stojanov (Bul, 1.5) drew with Diptayan Ghosh (1.5); Ashwin Jayaram (2) beat Ivan Radulov (Bul, 1); Nisha Mohota (1) lost to Milan Drasko (Mne, 2); Swapnil Dhopade (2) beat Stanislav Jasny (Cze, 1); Klaus Friedrichs (Ger, 1) lost to N Srinath (2); Alexey Volodin (Rus, 2) beat Murali Karthikeyan (1); Valeri Lilov (Bul, 1.5) drew with Soumya Swaminathan (1.5); R Bharathi (1.5) drew with Matthias Roeder (Ger, 1.5); Abhijeet Gupta (1.5) beat Petar Arnaudov (Bul, 0.5); Natalija Pogonina (Rus, 1) drew with Bhakti Kulkarni (1); David Gavrilescu (0.5, Rou) lost to Mary Ann Gomes (1.5); Viktor Guempel (Rus, 0.5) lost to G. Akash (1.5); Riya Savant (0) lost to Gabriel Voiteanu (Rou, 1); Ege Koksal (Tur, 0.5) drew with R Vaishali (0.5); Sidhant Mohapatra (0.5) drew with Yasin Sari (Tur, 0.5); Kazbek Primbetov (Kaz, 1) beat Srija Seshadri (0); Alexander Kiselev (Rus, 1) beat Sunyasakta Satpathy (0); Daniel Dimitrov (Bul, 0) lost to Kiran Manisha Mohanty (1); Gireman Ja (1) beat Svetlomir Stoyanov (Bul, 0); Ralf Danielmeier (Ger, 0.5) drew with Y Saranya (0.5); Rucha Pujari (1) beat David Zograbyan (Rus, 0); Mykhalo Galinskyi (Ukr, 0) lost to N Raghavi (1); G K Monnisha (1) beat Konstantin Orlovsky (Rus. 0).
