Russlan Ponomariev -- the youngest participant in the tourney -- crashed out after losing to fancied Bulgarian GM Vaselin Topolov 1-3. Second-seeded Alexy Shirov scraped through the tie-breakers by winning 1.5-0.5 against Ivan Sokolov of Bosnia.

Russian GM Alexander Khalifman, who beat Dibyendu Barua, once again proved his might with white pieces to shock former World Championship challenger Gata Kamsky 1.5-0.5 in tie-breaks. Playing after a gap of three years, Kamsky looked rusty in the fast-paced tie-breakers of 25 minutes each. Khalifman outplayed him with white pieces and then played solidly from the black pieces in Russian defence to pocket the match.

Pairingsfor the 3rd round: Kramnik (Rus)-Korchnoi (Swis), Topalov (Bul)-Psakhis (Isr), Adams (Eng)-Almasi (Hun), Rublevsky (Rus)-Dreev (Rus), Federov (Bul)-Timman (Netherlands), Leko (Hun)-Movsesian (Cze), Svidler (Rus)-Akopian (Arm), Magem (Spain)-Polgar (Hun), Zvjaginsev (Rus)-Krasenkow (Pol), Lautier (Fra)-Gelfand (Isr), Asrian (Arm)-Khalifman (Rus), Leitao (Bra)-Nisipeanu (Rum), Shipov (Rus)-Ivanchuk (Ukr), Beliavsky (Slo)-Short (Eng) and Milos (Bra)-Shirov (Spain)

Thipsay in second spot

SCARBOROUGH: Grandmaster Pravin Thipsay played a powerful attacking game to outwit International Master Nicholas Pert (England) to share the second spot after the fourth round of the British Open Chess Championships. England's IM D Gormally stunned third-seeded compatriot GM J Emms to jump into sole lead with four points. Other overnight leaders GM B Lalic and P Wells drew their games and shared the second spot with Thipsay, J Rowson, C Ward and J Hodgson with 3.5 points.

Thipsay's major pieces crashed through on thef and c files to checkmate black's King, which was caught in the centre.

Former National champion Abhijit Kunte suffered a reverse in his quest for the final norm for the GM title, when he lost to top-seeded GM Julian Hodgson (England) while IM V Saravanan held another English GM Stuart Conquest.

Youngster S Kidambi and IWM Anupama Gokhale went down to Swiss GM Callagher and C Duncan of England respectively.

National champion K Sasikiran (2) recovered from his defeat in the previous round to beat T Clarke while World under-12 girls champion Koneru Humpy scored her second consecutive victory, over MC Mohan. IWM Bhagyashree Thipsay (2.5) defeated Niel Berry (1.5) to move up the ladder.

Important 4th round results: IM D Gormally (4) bt GM J Emms (3); GM P Thipsay (3.5) bt IM N Pert (2.5); IM A Kunte (2.5) lost to GM J Hodgson (3.5); GM S Conquest (3) drew with IM V Saravanan (3); J Gallagher (3) bt S Kidambi (2); IWM Anupama Gokhale (1.5) lost to C Duncan (2.5); IWM Bhagyashree Thipsay (2.5) bt BielBerry (1.5); T Clarke (1) lost to IM K Sasikiran (2) MC Mohan (1) lost to IWM K Humpy (2)