International Master Sameer Kathmale caused a flutter by defeating highly-regarded Jaan Ehlvest in the fourth round of Dubai International open chess tournament here today.
Playing the white side of a Ruy Lopez, Kathmale punished Estonian-turned American Ehlvest for entering unwarranted complications out of an equal position once the queens got traded.
The Indian was precise in his technique after Ehlvest sacrificed two pieces for a rook and pawn in the endgame and converted his material advantage in to a full point after 58 moves.
The victory took Kathmale to three points out of a possible four and he has emerged as one of the best performing Indians in this USD 50000 prize money tournament.
Fancied Indian Grandmaster and former champion here, Abhijeet Gupta suffered a shock defeat at the hands of experienced Alexander Shabalov of United States.
Gupta faced a highly original plan by the American in a Sicilian Najdorf game and though he equalised out of the opening, Shabalov had a nagging edge. In the middle game however, Gupta could not handle the attack on his king and eventually lost a piece to go down.
Grandmaster Sahaj Grover enjoyed a winning advantage against compatriot Mehar Chenna Reddy but a blunder in the middle game cost the former dearly as Reddy escaped with a draw. It was on the 34th move out of a Sicilian Rauzer, that Grover missed his chance and drew 10 moves later.
Meanwhile at the top of the tables, top seed David Howell of England maintained a clean slate winning his fourth game on the trot. On the receiving end was Sergey Volkov of Russia who was outdone with the black pieces.
Howell, along with Yuri Solodovnichenko of Ukraine and Nils Grandelius of Sweden share the lead with a clean slate and they followed by a pack of nine players with 3.5 points each.
