Deepan dazzles

Deepan won a pawn on move 23 in the Poetroff Defence against Alavi and then took control of the game. He won a second pawn soon which he could not keep long because Alavi created some mating threats. The Indian combined his pieces well and took control of the seventh rank with his Queen and rook to force a mating attack by move 35. Filipov needed only 29 moves in Ruy Lopez to defeat Batchulbhn of Mongolia on the top board. Alavi, Akbarina and Tahmassebi all Iran were in the third position with fourpoints each.

In the under-14 section P. Harikrishna lost to third seed A Dasim of Iraq in 40 moves. In the under-20 boys section Tejas Bakre of India, with his fourth black in six rounds, played it safe against the Sicilian Alapin of Ibrahim Khamrukalov of Uzbekistan and drew in 21 moves.

Bakre thought he was in trouble after white8217;s tenth move, but found a good reply by move 12 to restore the balance. Bakre remained in lead with 4.5 points. Top seed Dao Thien Hai of Vietnam joined Bakre in the lead with 4.5 points after his 35-move win over Mas Hafizulhilmi of Malaysia in the Kings Indian Defence.

Pallavi Shah of India had a good day in the under-20 girls section when she beat Fifth seed Eman II of Iraq. Lairejam Mahesh of India reached three points with a 61-move win over No 3 seed Alaguzov of Kazakhstan in the under-10 boys section.