Five GMs take crash course

CALCUTTA, FEBRUARY 8: Five Grandmasters bit the dust on a day of major upsets as the Indian sub-continent players went on a GM-hunting spree in the third round of the 11th Goodricke International Open Chess tournament here on Tuesday. IM-norm aspirant Sriram Jha of India emerged as the sole leader with three points after scoring a facile victory over IM Arun Vaidya.

Youngsters Sandipan Chanda, Krishnan Sasikiran, GB Prakash, IM Zia-ur Rehman and V Sarvanan scalped higher rated Grandmasters while there were a few other minor upsets on the third day of the 11-round Swiss League.

Chanda got the better of GM Viorel Iordachescu of Moldova while Sasikiran outwitted GM Illdar Abragimnov of Russia. GB Prakash also had a good day by humbling Dao Thien Hai of Vietnam. Double GM-norm holder Abhijit Kunte of India held fancied Chinese GM Peng Xiomin to a draw while Koneru Humpy scalped her second IM in three days as she comprehensively defeated IM P Konguvel. World under-18 girls champion Aarthie Ramaswamy heldtriple IM-norm holder Jayant Gokhale to a draw.