New Delhi: After an five hours grueling battle, eleventh seed Woman Grandmaster Priyanka Nuttaki shocked top seed and former Asian Women Champion Tania Sachdev while continuing her fine form in the event Saina Salonika downs fourth seed and 2016 edition winner Bhakti Kulkarni in the fourth round of Asian Continental Women’s Chess Championship which is now underway at Leela Ambience Convention Hotel on Saturday.
While in the Open section, top seed Praggnanandhaa R defeated IM Pranav Anand to join overnight sole leader Leon Luke Mendonca and four others in the leaders board. Pragganandhaa and Mendonca now have the company of compatriot Karthikeyan Murali, Harsha Bharathakoti, Turkmenistan Grandmaster Maksat Atabayev and International Master Koustav Chatterjee are sharing the lead with three and half points.
On top board Mendonca showed great defensive skill to hold second seed Narayanan S L while Karthikeyan Murali outwitted Aditya Mittal in a fine crafted play with a pair of bishops. Harsha Bharthakoti joined the leaders after capitalizing crucial errors made by his Indian Grandmaster rival Sandipan Chanda while Koustav Chatterjee had a lucky escape against Kazakh No. 1 Grandmaster Rinat Jumabayev to secure full point from the outing. The lone non-Indian among the leaders, Atabayev got the better of Grandmaster Aryan Chopra in a long battle that ended after 90 moves.
In other important encounters in the Women’s section, Nandhidhaa P V beat Vantika Agrawal while Vietnamese Women Grandmaster Vo Thi Kim Phung defeated Liya Kurmangaliyeva to be at joint leaders position along with Priyanka, Nandhidhaa and Soumya Swaminathan, who beat Thi Mai Hung Nguyen of Vietnam in the fourth round encounter.
Important Results Round-4 (Indians otherwise stated) :- GM Leon Luke Mendonca (3.5) drew with GM Narayanan S L (3); IM Pranav Anand (2.5) lost to GM Praggnanandhaa R (3.5); IM Aditya Mittal (2.5) lost to GM Karthikeyan Murali (3.5); IM Koustav Chatterjee (3.5) beat GM Rinat Jumabayev of Kazakhstan (2.5); GM Raja Rithvik (3) drew with GM Adhiban B (3); GM Sandipan Chanda (2.5) lost to GM Harsha Bharathakoti (3.5); GM Shyam Sundar M (3) drew with IM Saparmyrat Atabayev of Turkmenistan (3); GM Aryan Chopra (2) lost to Maksat Atabayev of Turkmenistan (3.5); IM Pranesh M (2) lost to GM Sethuraman S P (3); IM Srihari L R (2) lost to GM Aravindh Chithambaram (3); GM Abhimanyu Puranik (2.5) drew with IM Aditya Samant (2.5); GM Vokhidov Shamsiddin of Uzbekistan (3) beat IM Amartuvshin Ganzorig of Mongolia (2); IM Alisher Suleymenov of Kazakhstan (2) lost to Sanket Chakravarty (3); IM Samed Jaykumar Shete (3) beat GM Batchuluun Tsegmed of Mongolia (2); GM Karthik Venkataraman (2.5) drew with Nitish Belurkar (2.5).
Women’s Round-4 :- WGM Priyanka Nutakki (3.5) beat IM Tania Sachdev (2.5); WGM Vantika Agrawal (2.5) lost to WGM Nandhidhaa P V (3.5); WIM Rakshitta Ravi (3) drew with WGM Nilufar Yakubbaeva of Uzbekistan (3); WGM Vo Thi Kim Phung of Vietnam (3.5) beat FM Liya Kurmangaliyeva of Kazakhstan (2.5); WM Thi Mai Hung Nguyen of Vietnam (2.5) lost to IM Soumya Swaminathan (3.5); WIM Saina Salonika (3) beat IM Bhakti Kulkarni (2); WGM Divya Deshmukh (2.5) drew with WIM Cholleti Sahajasri (2.5); WGM Kiran Manisha Mohanty (2.5) drew with WGM Mary Ann Gomes (2.5); IM Padmini Rout (2.5) beat WIM Mrudul Dehankar (1.5); IM Nisha Mohota (2) drew with IM Eesha Karavade (2).
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