Deep, Rozum climb to joint lead

City-based Grandmaster Deep Sengupta and GM Ivan Rozum of Russia climbed to joint lead with four points each from as many rounds in the LIC Kolkata International Open chess tournament here today.

Rozum once again showed his fine technique as he was featured in a rook ending where he held a strategic advantage to outplay Indian teenager Erigaisi Arjun in 42 moves from the black side of a Catalan setup.

In a battle between two of the acclaimed prodigies of the country, Aravindh Chithambaram lost to young D Gukesh in a typical moment of blindness over the board, allowing Gukesh to join as many as 12 players on 3.5 points closely following the leaders.

Top seeded Nigel Short had a short 16 move draw against young N R Vignesh on the top board, just when it looked like the game was leading to sharp play.

Strong performances also came from Abhijeet Gupta who defeated Manik Mikulas in the first Grandmaster fight of the event, while IM D V Prasad held R R Laxman to a draw to continue his good run in the tournament so far.