Mahamal shocks top seed Petrosian

International Master Anurag Mahamal came up with a sterling show to checkmate top seeded Grandmaster Tigran Petrosian of Armenia in the second round of Grand Europe Golden Sands International Chess tournament, here
In another big upset by an Indian player, International Master Shardul Gagare came up with a remarkable game to outwit Grandmaster Levente Vajda of Romania as it turned out to be a tough day for higher seeds.
While these were the two biggest upsets in the day, IM G A Stany also did his bit by holding highly regarded GM Mircea-Emilian Parligras of Romania to a draw.
Indian girls Bhakti Kulkarni and R Bharathi continued with their excellent forms to draw with former Russian women's champion Natalija Pogonina and German International Master Matthias Roeder.

With seven rounds still to come as many as 36 players share the lead and there are ten Indians in the leading pack. Apart from Mahamal and Gagare, Grandmasters Vidit Gujrathi, S Arun Prasad, M R Venkatesh, M Shyam Sundar and Sahaj Grover maintained a clean slate while Ashwin Jayaram, Swapnil Dhopade and N Srinath also made merry at the expense of lower ranked players.
After a first round draw, highest rated Indian Abhijeet Gupta struck form to beat Petar Arnaudov and took his tally to 1.5 points to be just behind the leaders.
Anurag Mahamal appeared to be I some difficulties in the middle game arising out of an English opening as black when he decided to throw everything at white's king.

The positional concession came with the attack but it also unsettled Petrosian a great deal as he tried to combat move for move. It was a picturesque finish in the end when Mahamal gave up his queen to force checkmate on the next move.