Pravin brought down Bangladesh youngster Enamul Hussain to earth with a quick victory. Hussain had defeated the other GM, Dibyendu Barua, yesterday. Thipsay (four points from four rounds) is a full point ahead of Barua and Abhijit Kunte.

Bhagyashree also had a swift match, a draw with Pallavi Shah. The overnight joint leader Nisha Mohota lost to Rani Hamid and that gave Bhagyashree the sole lead with 2.5 points in three rounds. Nisha is in the second position with two points.

It was a good day for two other Indian men who had had a bad start. K Sasikiran, who only had a draw in three rounds, played a brilliant game to defeat Zia-ur-Rehman while Saravanan scored his second consecutive victory, over Abhijit Kunte.

Thipsay played the Pelican variation againstHussain's Sicilian defence. According to some experts, Hussain had a drawing line but he must have overlooked it and lost in 27 moves.

Sasikiran played the best game of the day. Sasikiran played the King's Indian Defence. His opponent, Zia, castled on the queenside. Sasi had some threats on the Kingside. Zia sacrificed the c-file pawn but Sasi's Nd4 gave him a very good position. Zia sacrificed an exchange to repulse the attack and later blundered a piece to become totally vulnerable.

Saravanan played the Pirc defence and gained good advantage after the opening. In the middle game, he had six pawns to Kunte's five with the bishop advanced to the third rank. Kunte also had a double pawn in one file. In the end game, Saravanan had two more pawns and at two of them were threatening to become queens.

Barua played the Slav defence and had a superior position with his pieces well advanced against Abdullah al-Rakib. Mahmood Lodhi of Pakistan defeated Anup Deshmukh while M Waqar earned his first point bywinning against Badri Nepali.

In the women's group, top seed Vijayalakshmi and N Sarita Reddy had victories today after setbacks in the first two rounds. Vijayalakshmi won from English opening. Sarita Reddy played the Torre attack and cramped Swati's pieces to win while Rani Hamid defeated Nisha from Caro Cann opening.

Results

Men's (fourth round): IM Abdullah-al-Rakib (2405, Bangladesh) 2 lost to GM Dibyendu Barua (2538, India) 3 in 51 moves; GM Pravin Thipsay (2467, India) 4 bt Enamul Hussain (2310, Bangladesh) 1.5 in 27 moves; IMM Zia-ur-Rehman (2498, Bangladesh) 2.5 lost to IM K Sasikiran (2535, India) 1.5 in 36 moves; IM Mahmood Lodhi (2420, Pakistan) 3 bt Anup Deshmukh (2430, India) 0.5 in 37 moves; IM Abhijit Kunte (2455, India) 3 lost to V Saravanan (2396, India) 2 in 61 moves; M Waqar (2240, Pakistan) 1 bt Badri Nepali (2185, Nepal) 0 in 51 moves.

Women (third day):

IWM S Vijayalakshmi (2329, India) 1.5 bt Shabana Parvee (2075, Bangladesh) 1 in 40 moves; IWM N Sarita Reddy(2231, India) 1 bt IWM Swati Ghate (2194, India) 1.5 in 52 moves; IWM Pallavi Shah (2230, India) 0.5 drew with IWM Bhagyashree Thipsay (2235, India) 2.5; IWM Rani Hamid (2150, Bangladesh) 1.5 bt IWM Nisha Mohota (2157, India) 2.

Best Games Of The Day

IM Mahmood Lodhi (2420) Anup Deshmukh (2430)

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 c5 3.d5 g6 4.Nc3 Bg7 5.e4 d6 6.Nf3 0-0 7.Be2 Na6 8.0-0 Nc7 9.Bf4 a6 10.a4 b6 11.h3 Bd7 12.e5 Nfe8 13.Qd2 Rb8 14.b3 Rb7 15.Bd3 b5 16.axb5 axb5 17.Ne4 Bf5 18.Bh6 bxc4 19.bxc4 Rb4 20.Rfe1 Bxe4 21.Rxe4 e6 22.Rae1 dxe5 23.Rh4 f5 24.Bxg7 Nxg7 25.Qh6 Nf5 26.g4 Nf6. 27.Nxe5 Ncxd5 28.cxd5 Qxd5 29.gxf5 Rxh4 30.qxh4 gxf5 31.Bc4 Qd2 32.Bxe6+ Kh8 33.Re3 Ne4 34. Ng6+ Kg7 35.Nxf8 1-0.

IM Zia-ur-Rehman (2498) IM K Sasikiran (2535)

1.c4 g6 2.e4 Bg7 3.d4 d6 4.Nc3 Nf6 5.Nf3 0-0 6.h3 e5 7.d5 a5 8.Bg5 h6 9.Be3 Na6 10.g4 c6 11.Nd2 Bd7 12.Qf3 Kh7 13.0-0-0 a4 14.a3 Qa5 15.g5 Nh5 16.dxc6 bxc6 17.c5 Nxc5 18.Nc4 Nb3+ 19.Kb1 Qc7 20.gxh6 Bh8 21.Rxd6 Nd4 22.Qg2 Be6 23.Rg1 Nf4 24.Bxf4 exf4 25.h4 Rg8 26.e5 Bf5+27.Ne4 f3 28.Qg5 Bxe4+ 29.Ka1 Nc2+ 30.Ka2 Qb7 31.Nd2 Rab8 32.b3 axb3+ 33.Kb2 Qa7 34. Nxe4 Qxa3+ 35.Kc3 b2+ 36.Kd2 Qb4+ 0-1.