Kolkata, September 03: Local GM Sandipan Chanda and GM Magesh Chandran Panchanathan shot into the lead along with three other GMs after third round of the fourth Kolkata Open Grandmaster Chess Tournament at Gorky Sadan here today.
GM Nigel Short of England, GM Eltaj Safarli of Azerbaijan and GM Enamul Hossain of Bangladesh were the other leaders.
Chanda used his white pieces effectively to crush GM Rustam Khusnutdinov in a Queens Gambit accepted game.
The Indian won his opponent’s queen for a rook and a minor piece and used his material advantage to eventually pocket the full point.
Panchanathan was lucky to win against GM Rauf Mamedov of Azerbaijan. He had two knights against the King and pawn of his opponent, but still managed to win a theoretically drawn position when the Azerbaijian GM lost his way in time trouble.
Playing white, Short registered another fine win against GM Merab Gagunashvili of Georgia.
It was a Caro Kan defence employed by the Georgian, which proved inadequate as Short used wicked pin against opponent’s king to eventually win the game on the 40th move.
GM Eltaj Safarli of Azerbaijan stopped the winning streak of International Master Himanshu Sharma.
The Indian IM was defensive from the onset with his Sicilian defence and his exposed king was subjected to a neat combination, which would have eventually led to mate.
The game lasted 26 moves.
—Agencies