Mahalakshmi shocks Sahaj Grover in round 2

Sharing the lead with Tiviakov at two points were GMs Oleksienko Mikhailo (Ukraine), Marat Dzhumaev (Uzbekistan), Lintchevski Daniil (Russia), S P Sethuraman, M R Venkatesh, M R Lalith Babu, S Arun Prasad, R R Laxman (all India), IM Oliver Dimakiling (Philippines) and Mahalakshmi among others.

In the second round, after a sedate start, Mahalakshmi went for a king-side assault that had the Delhi based Grandmaster in trouble.

An exchange sacrifice in the 31st turn could not stem the queen, rook and bishop battery and Sahaj gave up faced after 41 moves. Mahalakshm had won the Gold medal in the Under 14 Girls section, last week in the World Youth Chess Championships at Maribor, Slovenia.

 

Newly crowned National Premier Champion and International Master G Akash (ELO 2404) suffered a stunning defeat at the hands of the 16-year-old Madhurima Shekhar (ELO 1959).

The French game developed into an interesting tussle and Madhurima equalised quickly and the queenless middle-game slowly moved in her favor. Giving up his rook for bishop on the 31st move, could not solve Akash's difficulties and faced with a mate, he resigned on 40th move.

A big win for the Delhi girl and good show from here, will help her to strike a Norm.

Earlier, the first round in the morning session packed a few surprises, as sixth seed Grandmaster Mark Paragua (ELO 2532) saved himself from an unpleasant position against Indian junior S Rohit Vassan (ELO 1762).

The Closed Sicilian game saw the Grandmaster pressing for the initiative. An exchange sacrifice on the 40th move put the Indian on the front and Rohit found himself four pawns up for an exchange by move 51.

But a series of inaccurate moves saw Rohit conceding a draw holding wrong colored bishop and a pawn, the queening square of which the Grandmaster had covered.

In another morning round upset, Adarsh Srivastava (ELO 1737) held International Master Shyam Sundar (ELO 2484) to a draw. More