Tamil Nadu youngster N. Lokesh checkmated fourth-seeded Georgian Grandmaster Merab Gagnashvili in 29 moves and livened up the second round of the Gurgaon Grandmasters International Open chess tournament at the Sun City School here on Thursday.
Lokesh, rated 2086 as compared to Gagunashvili’s 2547, came up with the brilliant queen-sacrifice to force the Georgian to give up immediately.
This million-rupee event has attracted 13 GMs and 11 International Masters who form part of the 252-player field from 10 countries. The 10-round event offers Rs. 2 lakh to the winner.
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In a field headed by Ukraine’s Martyn Kravstiv, the strongest Indian is GM Arun Prasad, seeded nine. After two rounds, 52 players enjoyed perfect scores. Given the depth of the field, it was not surprising to find GM S. Kidambi being held by Indian Air Force’s Rajesh Upadhyay and IM N. Srinath dropping half a point to Andhra’s C. Sahajasri.
Kerala’s young talent A. Abhishek spoilt IM Vishal Sareen’s return to competitive chess in three years by scoring a deserving victory.
In the first round, Sikkim’s Tamang Thendup made his presence felt by holding eighth seed Ukrainian GM Valeriy Neverov and made a mockery of their rating difference of over 750 points.
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Important results (Indians unless stated): Second round: Kravtsiv Martyn (Ukr, 2) bt Mohd. Shariff Hossain (Ban, 1); Kurukulasuriya Prasanna (Sri, 1) lost to Oliver Barbosa (Phi, 2); Alexander Evdokimov (Rus, 2) bt S. Harini (1); N. Lokesh (2) bt Merab Gagnashvili (Geo, 1); John Paul Gomez (Phi, 2) bt Manav Saxena (1); Swati Mohoto (1) lost to Tornike Sanikidze (Geo, 2); Marat Dzhumaev (Uzb, 2) bt Manish Hamal (Nep, 1); Arun Prasad (2) bt S. Yogit (1); S. Kannan (1) lost to Sahaj Grover (2).
Niladri Shekhar Bhattacharya (1) lost to Eldar Gasanov (Ukr, 2); Shantanu Bhambure (1) lost to Swayams Mishra (2); P. Shyamnikhil (2) bt Naik Rishubh Naresh (1); C. Sahajasri (1.5) drew with N. Srinath (1.5); S. Kidambi (1.5) drew with Rajesh Upadhayay (1.5); Vinayak Kulkarni (1) lost to V.A.V. Rajesh (2); S. Satyapragyan (2) bt Srinath Rao (1); Akila Kavinda (Sri, 1) lost to Prasanna Rao (2); Ravi Teja (2) bt R. Karthik (1); A. Abhishek (2) bt Vishal Sareen (1); Raset Ziatdinov (USA, 2) bt Manan Rai (1).