In a major upset, Gillani Tunveer of Pakistan shocked second seed Grandmaster Deepan Chakkravarthy of India in the fourth round of the Asian Zone 3.2 Chess Championship at the Airport Authority of India Club on Tuesday.

Playing with white pieces, Gillani opened with Sicilian Defence and overcame his Indian rival in 57 moves.

Another Indian Grandmaster in the fray, Neelotpal Das also seemed like meeting the same fate before he turned the tables on Amir Karim of Pakistan in 65 moves.

On another table, International Master K Rathnakaran narrowly avoided defeat against Surbir Lama of Nepal as signed the truce after 108 moves. Another local hope Sriram Jha defeated overnight sole leader veteran Grandmaster Praveen Thipsay in 65 moves. With this, Sriram moved to the top of the leaderboard with 3.5 points.

Bangladesh GM Reefat Bin-Sattar’s bad run continued as he lost against team mate and top seed Ziaur Rahman.

Sachdev in sole lead
In the women’s section, International Master Tania Sachdev secured the sole lead with three points from as many rounds after she beat national champion Kruttika Nadig in their third round encounter in 47 moves. Nisha Mohota beat Sultana Sharmin Shirin of Bangladesh and Sachini Ranasinghe defeated Monalisa Khamboo in the other third-round matches.

Tuesday’s results:

Men (Round 4): GM Ziaur Rehman, BAN (2.5) beat GM Reefat bin-Sattar, BAN (0); Gillani Tunveer, PAK (2.5) beat GM Deepan Chakkravarthy, IND (2.5); GM Neelotpal Das, IND (3.5) beat Amir Karim, PAK (1); IM Sriram Jha, IND (3.5) beat GM Praveen Thipsay, IND (3); Ahmed Ashraf, MAL (1) beat Kesav Malla, BHU (0); Surbir Lama, NEP (1.5) drew with IM Rathnakaran, IND (3); HLM Hapuarachchi, SRI (0) got a bye.

... contd.