Karthik gets the better of Beshukov

Young India chess player Rajarishi Karthik defeated Grandmaster Sergei Beshukov of Russia to earn his career best result in the fifth round of Dubai International Open chess tournament here.
Playing with the black pieces, Karthik equalised easily out of an English opening and just when his experienced opponent was exerting pressure, the Indian found a deep hole in his plan and capitalised on an optical blunder to win handsomely in just 30 moves.
Karthik moved to three points with this victory.
However, the higher ranked Indians had a forgettable day on the lone double round day and a lot of hard work lies ahead of all of them to make a comeback.

The highest rated Indian in the fray and a former winner of this tournament -- Abhijeet Gupta could not find his form yet again, despite enjoying a great advantage against compatriot and BPCL-teammate S Kidambi.
The game that started with the Knights-Tango ended in a draw, leaving Gupta with just three points and in a very unfamiliar situation in the event post the half-way stage.

The way back for the Indian star is to win a couple of games on the trot and then hope to do his best in the last two rounds.
Grandmaster Sahaj Grover, who suffered from a Laptop-crashing right at the beginning of the tournament, also proved that without the most wanted gazette, even a Grandmaster is sometimes helpless.

Playing the black side of a Benoni against compatriot Abhishek Kulkarki, Grover lost out a Benoni opening and remained on 2.5 points out of his five games.
The best placed Indian GM S Arun Prasad also lost his game against Yuriy Kuzubov of Ukraine. While for the Ukrainian, it was fourth straight victory after a shocking first round defeat, it did not serve Prasad's call as he was tamed out of a level position out of an English opening.
The hero of the previous round, India's Sameer Kathmale also met his nemesis in Tamas Banusz of Hungary. Sayantan Das lost to Eltaj Safarli of Azerbaijan, while Italian Daniele Vocaturo proved too strong for R R Laxman.