NEW DELHI, Mar 24: Top seed Arjun Erigaisi and former national title holder Lalith Babu M R emerged in a seven-way lead after the fourth end of the 19th Delhi International Grandmaster Chess tournament here on Thursday.
Arjun got better off Kushagra Jain without much struggle to register his fourth victory on the trot, while Lalith defeated Padmesh in a one-sided affair to share the lead with Arjun, Visakh N R; Iniyan P, Shahil Dey, Azer Mirzoev of Azerbaijan and Seyed Kian Poormosavi of Iran.
With seven players in the front, as many as sixteen players including 13-year-old unheralded Yashita Rout of Odisha, is occupying the eighth spot — half a point adrift from table leaders.
Yashita stole the show on Thursday when she held Grandmaster Mitrabha Guha, who rated more than 1100 rating points, to a creditable draw.
The fourth round started as a normal tournament after the organisers had opted for the Accelerated pairing system in the first three rounds to enable the norm-seekers to have more chances in lieu of more entries. This paved the way for Yashita to have a look at top level chess.
Earlier in the third round, third seed and five time commonwealth champion Abhijeet Gupta suffered a shock defeat from the hands of Rohith Krishna while Shahil Dey outwitted Iranian Grandmaster Masoud Mosadeghpour.
Important Results Round-4 (Indians otherwise stated) : GM Arjun Erigaisi (4) beat Kushagra Jain (3); GM Lalith Babu M R (4) beat Padmaesh M K (3); Aritrya Pal (3) lost to GM Visakh N R (4); Gyaneshwar B (3) lost to GM Iniyan P (4); Yashita Rout (3.5) drew with GM Mitrabha Guha (3.5); GM Azer Mirzoev of Azerbaijan (4) beat Ajay Santhosh Parvathareddy (3); Mayukh Majumder (3) lost to IM Shahil Dey (4); Oishik Kundu (3) lost to FM Kian Seyed Poormosavi of Iran (4); GM Sethuramn S P (3.5) beat Shawn Pravin (3); Arshpreet Singh (2.5) lost to GM Pavel Ponkratov of Russia (3.5); Sadbhav Rautela (2.5) lost to GM Neuris Delgado Ramirez of Paraguay (3.5); GM Arjun Kalyan (3.5) beat FM Rohith Krishna S (2.5); Sushrutha Reddy (2.5) lost to GM Harsha Bharathakoti (3.5); Thirunarayanan Sampath Kumar (2.5) lost to GM Karthik Venkataraman (3.5); IM Sayantan Das (3.5) beat WIM Michelle Catherina (2.5); IM Neelash Saha (3.5) beat Dhruva Thota (2.5); Anshul Mehta (2.5) lost to IM Shyaamnikhil P (3.5); Vihaan Dumir (2.5) lost to Gholami Orimi Mahadi of Iran (3.5); IM Harshvardhan G B (3.5) beat Vakcheri Mohitha (2.5); IM Srihari L R (3.5) beat Darshan Sasthaa M (2.5); IM Anuj Shrivatri (3.5) beat Kian Dishank Shah (2.5); FM Liyanage Ranindu Dilshan (3.5) drew with Parth Belwal (2.5).
Round 3 : IM Nigmatov Ortik lost to GM Arjun Erigaisi; IM Shyaamnikhil P drew with GM Sethuraman S P; GM Saptarshi Roy lost to GM Lalith Babu M R; GM Visakh N R beat IM Arah Tahbaz; GM Iniyan P beat IM Abdisalimov Abdimalik; IM Shahil Dey beat GM Masoud Mosadeghpour; GM Mitrabha Guha beat IM Himal Gusain; FM Poormosavi Seyed Kian beat GM Adham Fawzy; GM Karthik Venkataraman drew with FM Liyanange Ranindu Dilshan; GM Azer Mirzoev beat WGM Srija Seshadri; GM Pavel Ponkratov beat FM Aaryan Varshney; FM Rohith Krishna beat GM Abhijeet Gupta; GM Neuris Delgado Ramirez beat Saurabh Anand; Padmini Rout drew with GM Deepan Chakkravarthy; IM Manish Anto Cristiano lost to GM Arjun Kalyan; WIM Priyanka K lost to IM Neelash Saha; WIM Sakshi Chitlange drew with IM Vignesh N R; WIM Michelle Catherina beat IM Nitin S. (PTI)
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