Indians fumble in 3rd round of Dubai International

Dubai, Apr 26 (UNI) The quartet of Grandmaster R B Ramesh, International Master Satyapragyan Swayangsu, Lalith Babu and SP Sethuraman tasted their first defeat of the tournament as it turned out to be a forgettable day for the top Indians in the fray in the third round of the 8th Dubai International Chess championship here.

As many as seven Grand Masters -- Zviad Izoria, Darmen Sadvakasov, Gabriel Sargissian, Evgenij Miroshnichenko, Giorgi Kacheishvili, Ehsan Ghaem Maghami, Sergey Fedorchuk, Tamaz Gelashvili, Pavel Kotsur, and Merab Gagunashvili -- share the top spot with three points each.

Abhijit Gupta, with 2.5 points, remains the best placed Indian.

Swayangsu went down to Ukrainian Grandmaster Fedorchuk, while Ramesh, the only Indian GM in fray, was beaten by Kazakh Grand Master Darmen Sadvakasov.

Kazakh GM Pavel Kotsur got the better of Lalith Babu's defence while Armenian Grand Master Tigran Petrosian accounted for Sethuraman.

The Delhi duo of Sahaj Grover and Parimarjan Negi, however, recorded easy wins against Rahmani Behrooz (Iran) and Lara Stock (Croatia) respectively.

Among others, International Master Vishal Sareen tamed Jawad Ihsan, while WIM Nadig Kruttika downed Al-Housa Khalil.

In an all-Indian affair, International Master Abhijit Gupta defeated WGM Aarthie Ramaswamy.

UNI XC AY PM PC1516