Kolkata: Local lad and International Master (IM) Saptarshi Roy caused a sensation Saturday by defeating Grandmaster (GM) Neelotpal Das and was on course for his maiden GM norm at the third Kolkata Open Grandmaster Chess Tournament here.

Saptarshi had the upper hand from the opening and finished off the game in 53 moves of a Sicilian Taimanov opening.

The top board encounter between Nguyen Anh Dung of Vietnam and Ziaur Rahman of Bangladesh was another highlight of the day. Both players shot out 20 moves of the Sicilian Paulsen opening and then signed the peace treaty.

City based GM Sandipan Chanda had a hard fought draw with GM Viktor Laznicka of the Czech Republic.

On the fifth board GM Alberto David of Luxembourg and IM V. Saravanan of India also did not bother to play on, even though the David had a slight advantage after 14 moves of the Rossilimo variation of the Sicilian defence.

The top seed Krishnan Sasikiran played a brilliant game against the World Junior Champion Adly Ahmed of Egypt.

Sasikiran had the advantage of the white pieces and applied pressure throughout the game arising out of the Queen's gambit declined opening, to eventually break through. The Egyptian threw in the towel on the 43rd turn when he was about to lose a rook.

GM Koneru Humpy had a comfortable victory over IM Frhat Ali of Egypt.

Rolano Nolte of the Philippines caused the other upset of the round by defeating Super GM Smbat Lputian of Armenia. The untitled Filipino is on course for an IM/GM norm.

Indian GMs R.B. Ramesh and Tejas Bakre won their games to remain on the heels of the leaders.

Top Board Results:

GM Nguyen Anh Dung (5) drew with GM Ziaur Rahman (5)

GM Sandipan Chanda(4.5) drew with GM Viktor Laznicka (5)

GM Krishnan Sasikiran (5) beat GM Adly Ahmed(4)

GM Dibyendu Barua (4.5) drew with GM Ghaem Maghami (4.5)

GM Alberto David (4.5) drew with IM V. Saravanan (4.5)

IM Saptarshi Roy (5) beat GM Neelotpal Das (4)

Rolando Nolte (4.5) beat GM Sambat Lputian (3.5)

IM Frhat Ali (3.5) lost to GM Koneru Humpy (4.5)

GM Abdulla Al-Rakib (4) drew with IM Himanshu Sharma (4)

GM Safin Shukhrat (4.5) beat M.S. Thejkumar (3.5)

 

Source : IANS