Alberto David shares lead, Senthil Maran impressive

Top Seed Alberto David (Italy) kept a clean slate scoring his third win after the third round of the 9th Chennai Open Grandmaster Chess tournament 2017 for the Sakthi Group Dr N Mahalingam Trophy at the New Media Hall, Nehru Stadium, Chennai.

Alberto David now shares the lead at 3.0 points with many players including Grandmasters viz., Laxman R R (India), Tukhaev Adam (Ukr), Malakhatko Vadim (Bel), Horvath Adam and Czebe Attila (both Hungary) among others.

Alberto David (3.0) overcame a stiff fight from Jayakumaar S in the top board. Employing the Sicilian Rossolimo defence, David moved into a winning bishop and pawn ending sewing up the game in 42 moves. The Indian flag kept flying high thanks to Grandmaster R R Laxman (3.0) who defeated fellow Indian Vikramjit Singh, maintaining his cent percent score.

In keeping with the upset trend of the previous rounds, Tamil Nadu junior star Senthil Maran K defeated Grandmaster Nguyen Huynh Minh Huy of Vietnam. Senthil punished the Vietnamese for inaccurate handling of the Slav opening, where the Indian gained the upper hand early. Giving up a piece for counter-play Nguyen found the going tough and gave after 33 moves.

8 rounds remain to be played in this Rupees Eleven lakhs prize money event.

Results (Round 3) (Indians unless specified) David Alberto (Ita) 3 bt Jayakumaar S (2), Patil Pratik (2) lost to Tukhaev Adam (Ukr) 3, Malakhatko Vadim (Bel) 3 bt Vignesh B (2), Horvath Adam (Hun) 3 bt Jaiswal Puneet (2), Aronyak Ghosh (2) lost to Czebe Attila (Hun) 3, Stopa Jacek (2.5) drew with Tiwari Arjun (2.5), Pranavananda V (2.5) drew with Neverov Valeriy (Ukr) 2.5, Grover Sahaj (2.5) drew with Ajay Krishna S (2.5), Senthil Maran K (3) bt Nguyen Huynh Minh Huy (Vie) 2, Shyaamnikhil P (3) bt Joshi G B (2).

Senthil Maran K – GM Nguyen Huynh Minh Huy

1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.g3 Bg4 5.Ne5 Bf5 6.Nc3 e6 7.Qb3 Qb6 8.c5 Qc7 9.f3 Nbd7 10.g4 Bg6 11.h4 Nxe5 12.dxe5 Nd7 13.h5 Nxc5 14.Qd1 Bxh5 15.Rxh5 g6 16.Rh3 Qxe5 17.f4 Qc7 18.Qd4 e5 19.Qxe5 Qxe5 20.fxe5 Ne6 21.Bh6 Bxh6 22.Rxh6 O-O-O 23.O-O-O Ng5 24.e4 dxe4 25.Bg2 Rxd1 26.Kxd1 Kd7 27.Nxe4 Nxe4 28.Bxe4 Ke6 29.Ke2 Kxe5 30.Ke3 a6 31.g5 f5 32.gxf6 Kxf6 33.Bxg6 1-0