Chess: Narayanan becomes sole leader on penultimate day

Grandmaster Srinath Narayanan became the sole leader at the end of penultimate round in the 3rd Kolkata Open International Grandmasters Chess Tournament at The Newtown School here on Monday.

Srinath defeated overnight leader GM Deep Sengupta in just 10 moves after Deep arrived 90 seconds late at the board and blundered a piece, rendering Srinath as the sole leader heading into the final round on Tuesday.

Top seed GM Nigel Short and GM Sandipan Chanda who were the other leaders at the end of round 7 made a draw in 34 moves. Sandipan's all attempts to attack and gain advantage was thwarted by the former World Champion challenger and current candidate for FIDE Presidency, Englishman Nigel Short.

On third board, GM Ivan Rozum of Russia made a tactical error which GM Shyam Sundar capitalised by taking the f6 pawn on move no. 26 and he got another pawn in 3 more moves which completely exposed his already weakened king. Shyam eventually went on to win the game in 63 moves.

GM Deepan Chakkravarthy defeated GM Adam Tukhaev of Ukraine in just 33 moves arising out of Sicilian Defence Keres Attack.