Grandmaster M R Lalith Babu caused a major upset by defeating defending champion Ivan Cheparinov of Bulgaria in the third round of the Masters section of Tradewise Gibraltar Chess tournament here today.
With his third victory in as many games, Lalith Babu remained in joint lead and the victory against Cheparinov served as a confidence booster for the Indian who has been struggling for some time.
It was a Semi Slav defense in which Lalith Babu allowed level play to Heparinov who played black. The middle game was on even keel too when after the trade of queens Cheparinov thought he had a chance and miscalculated in the endgame.
Lalith Babu picked up two pawns in the process and then calculated precisely to romp home in 49 moves.
With seven rounds still to come in the 175000 Pounds Sterling Festival, there as many as 13 players sharing the lead and three Indians among them.
Apart from Babu, highest rated Indian P Harikrishna and B Adhiban maintained a clean slate at the expense of Ioan-Cristian Chirila of Romania and Alexander Donchenko of Germany.
There are as many as three Chinese players also in the lead. Women's world champion Yifan Hou made short work of Al-Sayed Mohamed of Qatar while Wenjun Ju caused an upset defeating Richard Rapport of Hungary. The other Chinese in lead is 15-year old GM Wei Yi who became the youngest ever to cross the 2700 ELO rating mark in the live rating list.
Meanwhile, second seed Hikaru Nakamura of United States had to work hard but in the end prevailed over Tamir Nabaty of Israel. Nakamura is the only elite player apart from Harikrishna to maintain an all-win record after three rounds.
Harikrishna, meanwhile, played the game of the day to beat Ioan-Cristian Chirila. The Berlin defense by the Romanian was spurned and Harikrishna took advantage of an opening error to launch a king side attack after sacrificing a pawn. It was sheer class that prevailed thereafter as Harikrishna gave up a rook for a minor piece en-route to securing a fine victory.
