Sanjeev Nair and Saurabh Anand beat Grandmasters

Sanjeev Nair and Saurabh Anand beat Grandmasters

The third round of the 2nd IIFL Wealth Mumbai International Open saw the big guns take a beating as two Indian youngsters dismantled the positions of experienced Grandmasters. Mumbai lad Sanjeev Nair played a fashionable line with the white pieces against GM Hesham Abdelrahman’s Sicilian Najdorf. A couple of minor inaccuracies by the Egyptian allowed Sanjeev to unleash a powerful attack that ended in a spectacular victory. Notably, Sanjeev was playing a grandmaster for the first time in his life.

Bihar’s Saurabh Anand dominated his Armenian opponent GM Karen Movszszian, the experienced sixth seed, to win the game in 41 moves. Saurabh is a former National Under-9 champion, comes from a poor family where he and his National Junior Champion brother—Kumar Gaurav—struggle to play quality tournaments due to insufficient funds and ever-mounting debts.

Among other minor upsets, Indian hope GM Diptayan Ghosh could only draw with Pune’s Nikhil Dixit who is rated approximately 600 points below the former.

The Juniors category also saw the games move along the expected lines. A group of six youngsters lead the tournament at the end of four rounds with 4.0/4.