Sangma stuns top seed Mchediishvili at Mumbai chess meet

International Master Rahul Sangma of India today stunned top seed Grand Master Mchediishvili Mikheil of Georgia in round two of the seventh Mumbai Mayor's International Open Chess Tournament.
Playing White, Mchediishvili opted for the Open Catalan system against the his lower-ranked Indian rival and soon obtained an advantage from the early middle-game.
However, he could not find the accurate continuation, which allowed Sangma to create counter-play and in the resultant time-scramble, Mchediishvili blundered his 33rd move and soon resigned when in a hopeless position.
Mchediishvili's surprise defeat follows on the heels of Tajikistan GM Amonatov Farrukh's loss in round one yesterday to host country's little fancied Matta Vinay Kumar.

In another minor upset, Georgian GM Gagunashvili Merab was held to a draw by untitled B S Shivananda of India.
Playing White, Shivananda surprised his rival with a rarely played Bird's Opening. However, Merab was able to equalise easily in the middle game.

After exchange of most of the pieces, Shivananda was able to win a pawn on move 45 before a gritty rearguard action by the Georgian GM forced him to call truce after 55 moves.
In another upset, one of India's rising stars, GM Sahaj Grover, was beaten by untitled Saravana Krishnan while GM Vokarev Sergey of Russia was held to a draw by A Karthik.

Seven more rounds remain to be played in the Rs 11- lakh prize money tournament in which Rs 3 lakh is the top prize and features 172 players from 19 countries.