Foreign GMs surprised Fancied overseas players at Mayor’s Cup International Chess fail to capitalise in the fourthround

Foreign GMs surprised

Fancied overseas players at Mayor’s Cup International Chess fail to capitalise in the fourthround

Ten players, including Indians B Adhiban, Debashis Das, Vaibhav Suri, T Purushotaman and Rajesh VAV, share the top spot with four maximum points after the fourth round on Day Three of the Fifth Mayor’s Cup International Chess Tournament at Chetna College here on Saturday. The day saw foreign Grandmasters either suffer shock defeats or settle for a draw. Top seed GM Aleksej Alexandrov had all but lost his bout against International Master Pravin Kumar, but the latter failed to capitalise on his position and at the end, had to settle for a draw. GM Mark Paragua of the Philippines, who is seeded eighth in the tournament, was not as lucky in his match as he suffered a shock defeat to T Purushothaman. It was also a bad day for 15th seed GM Evgeny Podolchenko, as he was stunned by C Natarajan in his game. In other games, sixth seed Abhijit Kunte was held to a draw by Ram S Krishnan, while 10th seed Kirill Stupak also split points with Rakesh Kulkarni on a day where untitled and lesser rated players stole the show. On the top board, top seed Alexandrov enjoyed an edge with a Catalan opening, but ended up playing an erratic game in the middle to allow a clear cut edge to Praveen Kumar. Alexandrov’s King was pulled out of his sheltered castle and his opponent’s queen and rook threatened to catch the King in a checkmating net. However, Praveen Kumar also missed many winning combinations and Alexandrov was forced to give up his queen for a rook and bishop. On the 53rd turn, Black again missed a winning combination and the game fizzled into a draw after 63 moves. In a Modern Defence game, Purushothaman needed 51 moves to defeat Mark Paragua while the encounter between C Natarajan and Podolchenko lasted 35 moves of a Trompowsky Opening and ended in a draw.