Vikramjit, Tillayev shock Grandmasters in Gurgaon chess

Grandmasters Arun Prasad and Marat Dzhumaev of Uzbekistan suffered shock defeats by Vikramjit Singh and Tillayev Ulugbek in the third round of the Gurgaon International Grandmasters Chess Tournament at the Suncity World School here Friday.

Playing with white pieces in classical variation of Nimzo-Indian Defence, Vikramjit sacrificed his bishop in the middle game to destroy the pawn structure of his fancied rival and went on to garner full points after just 28 moves, while Tillayev displayed sheer attacking skills to outwit compatriot Grandmaster rival in 41 moves.

Meanwhile, top seed Kravtsiv Martyn of Ukraine and second seed Oliver Barbosa of the Philippines continued their winning ways as they overpowered Indians Akash P.C. Iyer and Arjun Tiwari, respectively.

Among Indians, Grandmaster Sahaj Grover defeated Abhilash Reddy while International Masters Swayams Mishra, Shyam Nikil and Satyapragyn moved to the fourth round with full points.

Important Round 3 results: Akash P.C. Iyer lost to Martyn Kravstiv (UKR); Oliver Barbosa (PHI) beat Arjun Tiwari; Hemant Sharma lost to Alexander Evdokimov (RUS); John Paul Gomez (PHI) beat Abhishek Kelkar; Tornike Sanikidze (GEO) beat Lokesh P.; Tillyaev Ulugbek (UZB) beat Marat Dzhumaev (UZB); Vikramjit Singh beat Arun Prasad; Sahaj Grover beat Abhilash Reddy; Eldar Gasanov (UKR) beat Surendran N.; Swayams Mishra beat Manigandan S.S.; Puneet Jaiswal lost to Shyam Nikil; Rajesh V.A.V. drew with Anil Kumar; Bobir Sattarov (UZB) lost to Satya Pragyan; Prasanna Rao beat Ivana Maria Furtado; Karthik V. lost to Ravi Teja S.; Sekar B. lost to Raset Ziatdinov (USA); Kayastha Madan Krishna (NEP) lost to Sameer Kathmale; Kunal M. beat Lakshmi Narayanan M.V.; Vikramaditya Kulkarni beat Aradhya Garg; Virender Singh Negi lost to Nitin S.