Impressive wins for Adhiban, Narayanan in Gibraltar chess

Indian Grandmasters B Adhiban and S L Narayanan registered impressive wins in the third round of the Masters category of the Gibraltar chess festival. Georgia's Ivan Cheparinov, Kyrsa Leandro (Argentina), Vasif Durarbayli (Azerbaijan), Pier Luigi Basso (Italy) and Maksim Chigaev (Russia) are ahead of the field with three points after the third round on Thursday. There were surprises in store on a day when power failure for over an hour affected play, as the top-seed Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (world No.7) was held to a draw by French GM Jules Moussard. He is bunched together with several others on 2.5 points.

Second seed Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France outclassed Tal Baron of Israel to take his tally to 2.5 points. Apart from Adhiban and Narayanan, there are a few other Indians on 2.5 points, including Vaibhav Suri and Karthikeyan Murali. Adhiban and Narayanan scored superb wins over Martin Petrov of Bulgaria and Tingjie Lei of China respectively while young GM Raunak Sadhwani (1.5) shared the point with higher ranked David Navara.

Young Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa (2602) beat International Master Padmini Rout to take his tally to 2. He had lost to fellow Indian P V Nandhidhaa in the opening round. "It was close to a draw but I kept pushing," he said after the win. D Gukesh, another rising star from India and the second youngest GM ever, was held to a draw by Adrian Gschnitzer.

Current Asian Champion, GM Le Quang Liem (2713) pushed against India's Vaibhav Suri (2593), but could only share the point. GM Karthikeyan Murali, last year's runner-up here, took a draw against Ori Kobo to take his tally to 2.5. Experienced Grandmaster K Sasikiran (on 2 points) played out his second draw in three games, being held by Woman GM Natalija Pogonina.

Important results

Round 3: Shakhriyar Mamedyarov 2.5 drew Jules Moussard 2.5; Maxime Vachier-Lagrave 2.5  beat Tal Baron 1.5; Karthikeyan Murali 2.5 drew Ori Kobo 2; Ivan Cheparinov 3 beat Daniel Yuffa 2. B Adhiban 2.5 beat Martin Petrov 1.5. SL Narayanan 2.5 beat Tingjie Lei 1.5; Raunak Sadhwani (1.5) drew David Navara 1.5; R Praggnanandhaa 2 beat Padmini Rout, D Gukesh 2 drew Adrian Gschnitzer 2.