International Master Ramnath Bhuvanesh held sixth seed Grandmaster Cristian Cruz of Peru to a quick draw on the top board in the fourth round of the Chennai International Open chess tournament here on Thursday.
After 19 moves, the players repeated the position and signed a draw.
Railway players, K. Rathnakaran of Kozhikode and Swapnil Dhopade of Amravati scored their fourth straight wins to share the lead with four points.
Rathnakaran crushed Karthikeyan Murali in 43 moves by taking control of the king knight’s file with his queen and two rooks hunting the black king. Swapnil Dhopade trapped Abhishek’s knight in a minor piece ending to win in 60 moves.
Meanwhile, Andhra youngster C.R.G. Krishna shocked GM Valeriy Neverov in 56 moves. Krishna, Nr Vignesh share the third spot with 3.5 points along with nine others, including top-seeded Ivan Popov.
Vignesh won pawns in the middlegame to overcome Asian junior champion Srinath in a marathon 95-move rook ending.
Two of India’s top three rated players in this meet, Karthikeyan Murali and Srinath suffered defeats.
In the Group B section for 372 players, second seed O.T. Anilkumar is among the 15 leaders on 4.5 points from five rounds.
The results (round four): Ramnath Bhuvanesh 3.5 drew with Cristhian Cruz (Peru) 3.5; K. Rathnakaran 4 bt Karthikeyan Murali 3; Nguyen Van Huy (Vie) 3.5 drew with Shardul Gagare 3.5; Swapnil Dhopade 4 bt Abhishek Kelkar 3; Ivan Popov (Rus) 3.5 bt Vladimir Lazarev (Fra) 2.5; Mikhail Mozharov (Rus) 3.5 bt R Siddharth 2.5; D.K. Sharma 2.5 lost to Marat Dzhumaev (Uzb) 3.5. C.R.G. Krishna 3.5 bt Valeriy Neverov (Ukr) 2.5; Nr Vignesh 3.5 bt N Srinath 2.5.
