New Delhi: Grandmaster and former Asian junior champion J Deepan Chakkravarthy shot in to sole lead defeating Italian Grandmaster Alberto David int he fourth round of 13th Parsvnath International Chess tournament here at the Ludlow castle Sports Complex.

Playing to his strength, Chakkravarthy scored his fourth straight victory to nudge ahead of nearest rivals displaying excellent calculation and judgement in a complicated position.

For the records it was a Sicilian defense by David who played black and the Fianchetto variation by the Indian led to wild complexities after a central thrust. Chakkravarthy however stayed calm despite having just five minutes in a heated middle game and the Italian erred by sacrificing a rook for Bishop.

“It was complicated but somehow his attack after the sacrifice is not coming good, I was able to guide my pieces to defense in time and then the extra material was enough for a win”, Said Chakkravarthy in the post game chat.

With six rounds still to come in the 30 Lacs prize money festival, Chakkravarthy is now followed by as many as 12 players a half point behind. Leading this pack is defending champion and top seeded Grandmaster Abhijeet Gupta who decided to play a safe game and took a draw with fellow Indian Grandmaster Sahaj Grover.

Russian Grandmasters Anton Demchenko and Mikhail Mozharov, Peruvian Christhian Cruz, Andrey Baryshpolets of Ukraine are the other Grandmasters besides Gupta and Grover in the 12-players pack.

International Master Himanshu Sharma, Nr Visakh, N Srinath, S Nitin, S Satyapragyan and Vikramidtya Kamble are the other six Indians who all have 2.5 points each.

S Nitin scored the upset of the day upstaging Grandmaster Valeriy Neverov of Ukraine while Himanshu Sharma got the better of Italian GM Axel Rombaldoni to improve his tournament standing.

A little lower, Aniruddha Deshpande continued with his dream run in the tournament and held GM Sabino Brunello of Italy to a creditable draw. Deshpande took his tally to three points out of a possible four and this includes an opening round victory against second seed Ivan Popov of Russia.

On Monday, two rounds will be played.

Important Results Round-4 (Indians unless stated) :- GM Abhijeet Gupta (3.5) drew with GM Sahaj Grover (3.5); GM Deepan Chakkravarthy (4) beat GM David Alberto of Italy (3); GM Anton Demchenko of Russia (3.5) beat CRG Krishna (3); GM Mikhail Mozharov of Russia (3.5) beat IM Swapnil S Dhopade (2.5); GM Cristhian Cruz of Peru (3.5) beat Pradeep Kumar R A (2.5); IM Prasanna Rao (2.5) lost to GM Andrey Baryshpolets of Ukraine (3.5); IM Himanshu Sharma (3.5) beat GM Axel Rombaldoni of Italy (2.5); IM S Satyapragyan (3.5) beat GM Debashis Das (2.5); GM Valeriy Neverov of Ukraine (2.5) lost to IM Nitin S (3.5); IM Rishi Sardana of Australia (3) drew with GM Shyam Sundar (3); IM N Srinath (3.5) beat IM Murali Krishnan B T (2.5); IM Vikramaditya Kulkarni (3.5) beat IM Jonathan Cruz of Peru (2.5); IM Saptarshi Roy (3) drew with Nishan Malhotra (3); Visakh N R (3.5) beat Anruag Mhamal (2.5); IM Nguyen Van Huy of Vietnam (3) drew with Abhishek Kelkar (3); Kunal M (3) drew with GM Neelotpal Das (23); Aradhya Garg (3) drew with IM Narayanan S L (3); Aniruddha Deshpande (3) drew with GM Sabino Brunello of Italy (2.5); Gahan M G (2) lost to GM Ivan Popov of Russia (3); GM Alexander Evdokimov of Russia (2.5) drew with Utkal Ranjan Sahoo (2.5).


Round - 3 :- IM Karthikeyan lost to GM Abhijeet Gupta; GM Alberto David beat IM Del Rey Diego; IM Nitin S drew with GM Cristhian Cruz; GM Andrey Baryshpolets drew with Kunal M; Krishan CRG beat GM Alexander Evdokimov; GM Sahaj Grover beat Gahan M G; Deepan Chakkravarthy beat Harikrishnan A Ra; Pradeep Kumar R A drew with IM N Srinath; IM Jonathan Cruz drew with Aradhya Garg; Abhishek Kelkar drew with IM Saptarshi Roy; Neelotapl Das drew with Aniruddha Deshpande; Nishant Malhotra drew with IM Prasanna Rao; FM Raghunandan lost to GM Anton Demchenko; Ravi Teja S lost to GM Mikhail Mozharov; IM Murali Krishanan B T beat GM Marat Dzhumaev.