Guntur, April 5: Playing calmly and concentrating intensely Sandipan Chanda of India demonstrated his position which was not as dangerous as it looked from the outside. On the otherhand his opponent, Venkatachalam Saravanan (India) thought he was through but made a tactical blunder to lose. Chanda joined Russians Andrey Shariazdanov and Alexander Fominyh in the lead with 2.5 points at the end of the third round of the Chalapathi International Grandmasters Chess Tournament, here, on Wednesday.Humpy agreed for a draw in a clearly better position from which she could have given Ibragimov a torrid time. The reason for not pressing was simple - with two tough losses already, she wanted to get off to a start to feel psychologically better.Top seed Shariazdanov was surprised by GB Prakash's 13th move b5 arising from a Slav Exchange variation. Prakash got confused with the move order but the Russian could not find a way to get a grip on the position. When Prakash played 16 Bd3, the position was equal and the draw was agreed soon.Leonid Yurtaev, the Grandmaster from Kyrgysztan, combined his pieces beautifully against Dibyendu Barua from the 28th move Rd4. His rook got to the right square and his knight and Queen also were placed in the correct squares from where lot of threats were generated.Barua managed to exchange the rook but Yurtaev's knight and Queen kept Barua's Queen and bishop under lock and key.He also got an outside passer and pushed his pawn to a3, winning two pawns. Barua went for the Queen and pawn ending and tried till the end but Yurtaev after playing so well was in no hurry as he gave the Indian GM no chance although, the game lasted eight hours.It was really an instructive game from Yurtaev, who sensed the right moment for the kill, using the dynamic nature of the position to maximum effect. Chanda seems to be improving with every tournament. In Wednesday's encounter with Saravanan, who adopted the Modern defence, his opening play was not convincing but he came back strongly in the middlegame. His 25th move `a4' created problems for Saravanan, who went for 26 Na4 and 29 Nb2 in the hope of winning not forseeing a simple tactical threat on the 30th move Bb5 which wins a piece for Chanda. He could have prolonged the game but Chanda's bishop is better than Saravanan's knight which gives the youngster a permanent edge.Pravin Thipsay after enjoying a slight edge throughout his game with Alexander Fominyh went for the suicidal Queen exchange on the 37th move transposing into a rook and pawn ending which was absolutely lost because of the Russian's active rook and King.Krishnan Sasikiran inflicted the third defeat on Ziaur Rahman, who just cannot find a way to get his form going at the moment.Abhijit Kunte-DV Prasad agreed for a quick draw in 14 move. It's surprising that Prasad, who has a chance for completing his GM title here, went for this and not going all out for victory because he knew that every half point will count in the end.Results: (IIIrd round): A Shariazdanov (Rus) 2.5 drew GB Prakash (Ind) 1.5, PM Thipsay (Ind) 0.5 lost to A Fominyh (2.5), Sandipan Chanda (Ind) 2.5 bt V Saravanan (Ind) 2, D Barua (Ind) 1.5 lost to L Yurtaev (KGZ) 1.5, K Humpy (Ind) 0.5 drew I Ibragimov (Rus) 15, Abhijit Kunte (Ind) 1 drew DV Prasad (Ind) 1, K Sasikiran 1.5 (Ind) bt Zia-ur-Rahman (Ban) 0.The Moves: Sandipan Chanda - V Saravanan: 1. e4 g6 2. d4 Bg7 3. Nc3 c6 4. Be3 d5 5. e5 f6 6. Nf3 Nd7 7. exf6 exf6 8. h4 Nb6 9. h5 Bg4 10. hxg6 hxg6 11. Rxh8 Bxh8 12. Bd3 Ne7 13. Qd2 Qd7 14. 0-0-0 0-0-0 15. Bf4 g5 16. Bh2 Bg7 17. Ne2 Bxf3 18. gxf3 Rh8 19. Bg3 f5 20. Be5 Bxe5 21. dxe5 c5 22. e6 Qe8 23. Nc3 c4 24. Bf1 Rh6 25. a4 Rxe6 26. a5 Na4 27. Nxd5 Nxd5 28. Qxd5 c3 29. b3 Nb2 30. Bb5 1-0.
