Women Grandmaster Priyanka stuns Tania Sachdev; Praggnanandhaa in joint lead

New Delhi, October 30, 2022

Eleventh seed Grandmaster Priyanka Nuttaki stunned top seed and former Asian Women's Champion Tania Sachdev while Saina Salonika beat fourth seed Bhakti Kulkarni in the fourth round of the Asian Continental Chess Championship at the Leela Ambience Convention Hotel here on Sunday.

In the Open section, top seed Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu defeated IM Pranav Anand to join overnight sole leader Leon Luke Mendonca and four others in the leaders board.

Praggnanandhaa and Mendonca now have the company of compatriot Karthikeyan Murali, Harsha Bharathakoti, Turkmenistan Grandmaster Maksat Atabayev and International Master Koustav Chatterjee in the lead with three-and-a-half points.

On top board Mendonca showed great defensive skill to hold second seed Narayanan S L while Karthikeyan Murali outwitted Aditya Mittal in a fine crafted play with a pair of bishops.

Harsha Bharthakoti joined the leaders after capitalizing on crucial errors made by his compatriot Sandipan Chanda while Koustav Chatterjee had a lucky escape against Kazakh No. 1 Grandmaster Rinat Jumabayev to secure full point from the outing.

The lone non-Indian among the leaders, Atabayev got the better of Grandmaster Aryan Chopra in a long battle that ended after 90 moves.

In other important encounters in the Women’s section, Nandhidhaa P V beat Vantika Agrawal while Vietnamese Women Grandmaster Vo Thi Kim Phung defeated Liya Kurmangaliyeva to be joint leaders position along with Priyanka, Nandhidhaa and Soumya Swaminathan, who beat Thi Mai Hung Nguyen of Vietnam in the fourth round encounter.

NNN