Teenager Ghosh upsets GM Oliver in Chennai Open chess

Thirteen-year-old FIDE Master Diptayan Ghosh stunned Grandmaster Barbosa Oliver of the Philippines in the third round of the SDAT – RMK Chennai Open International Grandmaster chess tournament here Thursday.

Top seed Grandmaster Aleksandrov Aleksej shared the lead with 3.0 points along with 16 players including Grandmasters Oleksienko Mikhailo (Ukraine), SP Sethuraman, Neelotpal Das (both India), John Paul Gomez (Philippines), Hoang Thanh Trang (Hungary) and International Masters MR Venkatesh, MS Thejkumar, Himanshu Sharma (all India) among others.

Aleksej faced the Queen’s Indian defence employed by Swayams Mishra in the top board. Exerting pressure early in the game, Aleksandrov exhibited superior middle game play forcing a ‘zugzwang’ on Mishra. Facing a drowning position and a heavy material loss, Mishra resigned on the 39th move.

Bengal lad Ghosh, grabbing the initiative after the end of the theoretical debate, went for an all out attack on the kingside. Sacrificing a knight on the 21st move, the Indian teenager ripped open Barbosa’s kingside and clinched the issue with a flurry of attack. Facing checkmate, the Filipino gave up after 34 moves.

Results (Round 3): Aleksandrov Aleksej (Belarus) 3 bt Swayams Mishra (2), T U Navin Kanna (2.5) drew Kravtsiv Martyn (Ukraine) 2.5, Barbosa Oliver (Philippines) 2 lost to Ghosh Diptayan (3) Murali Krishnan B T (2) lost to Oleksienko Mikhailo (Ukraine) 3, Ramnath Bhuvanesh R (2) lost to Sethuraman S P (3), Rahman Ziaur (Bangladesh) 2.5 drew Konguvel Ponnuswamy 2.5, Ankit R Rajpara (2.5) drew Paragua Mark (Philippines) 2.5, Prakash G B (2) lost to Gomez John Paul (Philippines) 3, Venkatesh M R (3) bt Praveen Kumar C (2), Rajesh V A V (2.5) drew Deepan Chakkravarthy J (2.5), Yu Ruiyuan (China) 3 bt Phoobalan P (2), Sagar Shah (2) lost to Dzhumaev Marat (Uzbekistan) 3, Ma Qun (China) 2.5 drew Kunal M (2.5), Shashikant Kutwal (3) bt Ashwin Jayaram (2), Neelotpal Das (3) bt Joshi G B (2), Ravi Teja S (2.5) drew Barua Dibyendu (2.5), Thejkumar M S (3) bt Gokhale Chandrashekhar (2), Hemant Sharma (2) lost to Hoang Thanh Trang (Hungary) 3, Ramnathan Balasubramaniam (2.5) drew Vakhidov Jahongir (Uzbekistan) 2.5, Anilkumar O T (2) lost to Himanshu Sharma (2).