Grandmaster Abhijeet Gupta suffered a shock defeat at the hands of Ziaur Rahman of Bangladesh in the second round of 13th Asian Continental Chess championship here at Sahrjah Chess Club.
It was a bad day in office for Abhijeet who blew up a good position obtained with black pieces. The Indian faced the Trompovsky opening by seasoned Rahman, got a decent middle game on board and then looked good for a second straight victory in the tournament.
However, an erroneous plan led to deterioration in position quickly and Rahman was up to the task in finding the right manoeuvres to maintain a clean slate.
Indian Grandmasters G N Gopal and B Adhiban joined the group of seven leaders with a perfect score. Gundavaa Bayarsaikhan of Mongolia was outdone by Adhiban in a fine game with black pieces while Gopal excelled at the expense of Mamyrbay Assad of Kazakhstan.
With eight rounds still to come in the championship, highest rated Indian Krishnan Sasikiran is on 1.5 points. In the second round, Sasikiran was held to a draw by Mongolian Batchuluun Tsegmed.
Among other Indians in the fray, round one hero Abhijeet Kunte suffered a reversal at the hands of Grandmaster A R Salem Saleh of UAE.
In the women's championship being held simultaneously, Tania Sachdev was held to a draw by Irine Kharisma Sukander of Indonesia. It was a Queen's Indian defense wherein Tania got her preparation rolling on the board and got a good positional advantage in the queen less middle game.
Irine worked on her counter play in quick time and Tania, missed the thread of the position and allowed equality leading to a forced draw.
