Karthikeyan and Himanshu hold top seeds

Karthikeyan and Himanshu hold top seeds

Hyderabad (26 Nov 13) :- Indian International Master P Karthikeyan and Himanshu Sharma held first seed Russian Grandmaster Ivan Popov and second seed Levan Pantsulaia of Georgia in the ongoing 2nd Hyderabad International Grandmasters Chess Tournament here at Kotla Vijaya Bhaskara Reddy Indoor Stadium, Yousufguda.

Meanwhile there is no stopping for the giant killing act of Andhra Pradesh youngster YVK Chakravarthy and Delhi based Prince Bajaj as they registered fancied victory over International Masters Vahe Baghdasaryan of Armenia and MS Thej Kumar respectively while Andhra players Dhulipala Bala Chandra Prasad and Harsha Bharathakoti held Grandmasters Neelotpal Das and Sudarjan Kidambi respectively. Another casualty in the second round was former National champion Grandmaster Abhijit Kunte as he suffered shock defeat by the hands of Railwayman Vikramjit Singh.

Third seed Vidit Santosh Gujarathi and fourth seed M R Lalith Babu moved to third round with a clean slate as they overcame Malaysian International Master Hafizulhelmi Mas and Women Grandmaster Soumya Swaminathan respectively without much struggle.

Continuing his impressive form in the season, Chennai Grandmaster event winner Aravindh Chithamabram held higher seeded Armenian Grandmaster Samvel Ter-Sahakyan while S Ravi Teja and Aniruddha Deshpande forced their higher rated rivals Grandmaster Levon Babujian of Armenia and Grandmaster Vasily Papin of Russia to sign the peace treaty in the second round encounter.

Third round of this eleven round Swiss system tournament sponsored by Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd, Mahindra Ecole Centrale, Andhra Bank, Petronet LNG Ltd and Airports Authority of India will be held at Wednesday morning.

Category ‘A’ Important Results (Round-2) (Indian’s otherwise specified) :- IM Karthikeyan(1.5) drew with GM Ivan Popov of RUS (1.5); GM Levan Pantsulaia of GEO (1.5) drew with IM Himanshu Sharma (1.5); IM Hafizulhelmi Mas of MAS (1) lost to GM Vidit Santosh Gujrathi (2) ; GM Lalith Babu M R (2) beat WGM Soumya Swaminathan (1); GM Samvel Ter-Sahakyan of ARM (1.5) drew with FM Aravindh Chithambaram (1.5); IM Shivananda B S (1) lost to GM Vladislav Borovikov of UKR (2); IM Girinath PDS (1) lost to GM Merab Gagunashvili of GEO (2); Alon Greenfeld of ISR (2) beat IM Murali Krishnan B T (1) ; Himal Gusain (1) lost to GM Arun Prasad (2) ; GM Azer Mirzoev of AZE (2) beat CRG Krishna (1) ; Ravi Teja S (1.5) drew with GM Levon Babujian of ARM (1.5); GM Vasily Papin of RUS (1.5) drew with Aniruddha Deshpande (1.5); WGM Bhakti Kulkarni (1) lost to IM Mikhail Mozharov of RUS (2); GM Deepan Chakkravarthy (1) lost to IM Praveen Kumar (2); Arjun Tiwari (1) lost to GM Sinisa Drazic of SRB (2); IM Bahruz Rzayev of AZE (2) beat Visakh N R (1) ; Pratik Patil (1.5) drew with IM Swapnil Dhopade (1.5); IM Thej Kumar (1) lost to Prince Baja (2)j; Kumaran B (1.5) drew with IM Shardul Gagare (1.5); GM Neelotpal Das (1.5) drew with Dhulipala Bala Chandra Prasad (1.5).