Laxman beats GM Vitaly, shares lead in Chennai Open

Chennai-based Grandmaster R R Laxman of ICF defeated GM Sivuk Vitaly of Ukraine in the fourth round of the 10th Chennai Open International Grandmaster Chess tournament 2018 here today.
Joining Laxman (4 points) on top of the table were GMs Gareyev Timur (USA), Tukhaev Adam (Ukr) and FIDE Master Karthik Venkataraman (India), also with four wins from four rounds.
In a well contested Pirc game, Laxman showed aggression, when the situated so demanded, coming up trumps in 58 moves.
Speaking about the match, Laxman said, "My position was getting passive and I counter-attacked to stay on course.
My aggression on kingside, caught him off-guard and I managed to come up better in complications".

Six more rounds remain in this 267-player Swiss tournament that concludes on January 25.

Important results (Round 4) (Indians unless specified) : Timur Gareyev (USA) 4 bt Rahul Sangma (3), Segei Tiviakov (Ned) 3.5 drew with Saravana Krishnan P (3.5), Adam Tukhaev (Ukr) 4 bt AL Muthiah (3).
R R Laxman (4) bt Vitaly Sivuk (Ukr) 3, Karthik Venkataraman (4) bt Ankit Gajwa (3), Ivan Rozum (Rus) 3.5 bt Nikhil Dixit (3), Yuri Solodovnichenko (Ukr) 3.5 bt A Ra Harikrishnan (2.5), Roelan Pruijssers (Ned) 3.5 bt Mithil Ajgaonkar (2.5), Rahul Shetty (3) drew with Czebe Attila (Hun) 3, Kushagra Mohan (3) drew with S Nitin (3).

Important results (Round 3) : B Vignesh (2) lost to Gareyev 3, V Pranav (2) lost to Tiviakov 3, C Praveen Kumar (2) lost to Tukhaev 3, Sivuk 3 bt P Maheswaran (2), Tran Tuan Minh (Vie) 3 bt Ajay Karthikeyan (2). Divya Deshmukh (2.5) bt Nguyen Duc Hoa (Vie) 1.5, Divya Lakshmi R (1.5) lost to Erigaisi Arjun (2.5).