Adhiban shocked by unheralded Igonin

Grandmaster of high repute, B Adhiban, suffered a shocked defeat at the hands of unheralded Temur Igonin of Uzbekistan in the second round of the Asian Continental Chess Championship here today.
In what turned out to be a game of fluctuating fortunes, Adhiban as black went overboard trying to find a way to score his second successive victory out of what was a possible draw through repetition and paid the price as the Uzbek cantered home once on top.
The loss meant that Adhiban remained on one point from his two games in the championship that is a part of the next world championship cycle. There are seven games still remaining which means that the Indian has enough time to catch up.

Grandmaster Abhijeet Gupta, who had lost in the opener, came back in to reckoning by winning his second game but the fact that it was hard fought too meant that the Indian is still to find his rhythm.
As many as fourteen players including S P Sethuraman, Surya Shekhar Ganguly, Aravindh Chithambaram and Vidit Santosh Gujrathi share the lead with a perfect score after the second round. There is USD 75000 combined prize pool at stake here and the top five placed players will be part of the next world championship cycle by qualifying to the World Chess Cup.
In the women's section being organised simultaneously, Mary Ann Gomes did well to hold second seed Guo Qi of China after a keenly contested game. Gomes had a little nervous start but caught up with the momentum as the game progressed and in the end held her nerves together.

The all Indian duel between Padmini Rout and Bhakti Kulkarni favoured the former at the start but Bhakti came up with some enterprising stuff to keep herself in the game. Padmini tried but the girl from Goa secured the draw in the end.
Important and Indian results round 2 (Indians unless specified): Susanto Megaranto (Ina, 1) lost to Le Quang Liem (Vie, 2); Rustam Kasimdzhanov (Uzb, 1.5) drew with Gundavaa Bayarsaikhan (Mgl, 1.5); Murali Karthikeyan (1) lost to Wei Yi (Chn, 2); Temur Igonin (Uzb, 2) beat B Adhiban (1); Vidit Gujrathi (2) beat Nguyen Huynh Minh Huy (Vie, 1); Wang Yiye (Chn, 1) lost to Surya Shekhar Ganguly (2); Mohammad Minhaz Uddin (Ban, 1) lost to S P Sethuraman (2); Bilguun Sumiya (Mgl, 1.5) drew with M R Lalith Babu (1.5); Deep Sengupta (1.5) drew with Asyl Abdyjapar (Kgz); Aravindh Chithambaram (2) beat Abdusattorov Nodirbek (Uzb, 1); Abhijeet Gupta (1) beat Nuriddin Khudoykulov (Uzb, 0); Eminjonov Muzaffarjon (Uzb, 1) lost to Rahul Srivatshav (1);

Women: Mary Ann Gomes (1.5) drew with Guo Qi (hn, 1.5); Padmini Rout (1.5) drew with Bhakti Kulkarni (1.5); Gong Qianyun (Chn, 1) lost to Dinara Saduakassova (Kaz, 1.5); Bashaer Khalil (Uae, 1) lost to Atousa Pourkashiyan (Iri, 2); B Pratyusha (1) lost to Nguyen Thi Mai Hung (Vie, 2); Soumya Swaminathan (1.5) beat Nodira Nadirjanova (Uzb, 0.5); Vo Thi Kim Phung (Vie, 1) drew with R Vaishali (1).