Asian Under-12 champion K.S. Raghunanandan of Bangalore posted a win with the black pieces against Senthil Maran in the third round to be among the leaders in the Adyar Times FIDE rating chess tournament here on Friday.
The Adyar Times Tournament is getting younger and younger. Five of the players in the top ten boards were under-12 players in the third round. Of this, Raghunandan was clearly the pick of the lot, winning and joining the large group of leaders.
Top seed R.A. Pradeep Kumar won in 41 moves with the white pieces using a Catalan opening against Balkishan.
International Master G.B. Prakash offered a draw on move 21 but his opponent, J Arun, played on and was defeated nine moves later.
Fresh from victory in the Teekay FIDE Rating at Tuticorin, Sa Kannan found Sudhakar Babu too strong and went down in 48 moves with the white pieces. Six rounds remain to be played.
The highlight of the morning session was the unexpected victory of Under-14 boy Ojas Kulkarni of Karnataka over former National challenger champion R Balasubramaniam. A significant 540 Elo difference existed but Ojas did not care about the huge reputation of his opponent.
Important results (round three): R.A. Pradeep Kumar 3 bt A Balkishan 2; G.B. Prakash 3 bt J Arun 2; Sa Kannan 2 lost to N Sudhakar Babu 2; Ram S Krishnan 3 bt P Iniyan 2; M Aadhityaa 3 bt B Kumaran 2; M Vaisnav 2 lost to Abhilash Reddy 3; R Ashwath 2.5 drew with A.R. Harikrishnan 2.5; R Prajesh 2 lost to Akash Pc Iyer 3; Sriram Sarja 3 bt S Jayakumar 2; K Senthil Maran 2 lost to K.S. Raghunandan 3.
(the headline has been corrected for a spelling error)
