Two Indians among leaders at Delhi Open chess tournament

Five players, including India's Karthik Venkataraman and , CRG Krishna, were on top with an all-win record at the end of round four in the 18th Delhi International Open Grand Masters chess tournament, here on Saturday.

Grandmaster Venkataraman and International Master Krishna were joined by Jose Eduardo Martinez Alcantara (Peru), Aleksej Aleksandrov (Belarus) and Bangladesh GM Ziaur Rahman at the top.

They were ahead of six players, who are joint second.

Karthik Venkataraman posted a win over Gurgaon's Ishvi Aggarwal, who let slip advantage, allowing the Grand Master wriggle out of trouble.

On the top board, 18-year old Peruvian GM Alcantara, seeded fourth, posted a 47-move win over International Master Himal Gusain while GM Aleksej Aleksandrov, the eighth-seed, had to bring out his best to tame India's Niranjan Navalgund in 70 moves.

 

Indian GM Karthikeyan Murali, the third seed, was held to a draw by Saptarshi Roy.

Second-seed Pavel Ponkratov (Russia) was held to his second draw when Indonesia's Theolifus Taher Yoseph held his own in a long-drawn game.

Young Sri Lankan player Kevin Ranidu Silva (rating 1854) forced 14th seeded GM Alexei Fedorov (2562) to share the point after a 61-move game.

Important results: 4th round:

Jose Eduardo Martinez Alcantara (Peru) 4 beat Himal Gusain (India) 3, Aleksej Aleksandrov (Belarus) 4 beat Niranjan Navalgund (India) 3, Karthik Venkataraman (India) 4 beat Ishvi Aggarwal (India) 3, C R G Krishna (India) 4 beat Rudrashish Chakraborty (India) 3, Ziaur Rahman (Bangladesh) 4) beat Abdelrahman Hesham (Egypt) 3.

Farrukh Amonatov (Tajikistan) 3.5 beat Al Muthaiah (India) 3, Theolifus Taher Yoseph (Indonesia) 3 drew with Pavel Ponkratov (Russia) 3, Karthikeyan Murali (India) 3 drew with Saptarshi Roy (India) 3, Nodirbek Yaubboev (Uzbekistan) 3 drew with P Shyam Nikhil (India) 3.

Ivan Rozum (Russia) 3.5 beat Marat Dzhumaev (Uzbekistan) 2.5, Abhijeet Gupta (India) 3 beat Jay Kundaliya (India) 2, Leven Pantsulaia (Georgia) 3 beat Mahindrakar Indrajeet (India) 2.