Indian IM Muthaiah Stuns Defending Champion Pantsulaia in Delhi Open Chess

New Delhi, Jan 10 (PTI) India's Al Muthaiah caused a flutter, pulling off a win over defending champion Levan Pantsulaia of Georgia in the second round of the 18th Delhi International Grandmasters Chess tournament here on Friday.

Playing with white pieces, the Indian International Master crashed through the defences of Pantsulaia in 45 moves to record a memorable win.

Muthaiah took advantage as Pantsulaia struggled in the middle game and never really recovered. Winning a rook for a knight Muthaiah ensured he didn't make any further errors and won the game in style.

Grand Master Karthikeyan Murali, the highest-rated Indian in the field, was held to a draw by Denis Eraschenko of Russia in a result that did not go as per rankings.

The second highest rated Indian Abhijeet Gupta, however, played a fine game to beat Neelash Saha.

Indian player Utkal Ranjan Sahoo also came up with a good effort to hold Alexey Goganov of Russia on a day when top seed Farrukh Amonatov of Tajikistan was also forced to split points with Abdialik Abdisalimov of Uzbekistan.

Local lad Aaryan Varshney impressed in a draw with black pieces against Grand Master Adam Tukhaev of Ukraine.

Varshney, who is looking for his third and final International Master norm from the event, was in control for the major part of the hard fought game.

Ranveer Mohite was the other Indian to impress as he held Grand Master Sahaj Grover, who is back in India after a two year gap, to a draw.

The 10-round 'A' category event of the tournament carries prize money of Rs 39 lakh.

Important results after Round 2: Farrukh Amonatov (Tajikistan) 1.5 drew with Abdisalimov Abdimalik (Uzbekistan) 1.5; Atilla Czebe (Hungary) 1 lost to Pavel Ponkratov (Russia) 2; Karthikeyan Murali 1.5 drew with Denis Eraschenkov (Russia) 1.5; Mikulas Manik (Slovakia) 1 lost to Jose Eduardo Martinez Alcantara (Peru) 2. Abhijeet Gupta (India) 2 beat Neelash Saha (India) 1; Al Muthaiah (India) 2 beat Levan Pantsulaia 1; Ameya Audi (India) 1 lost to Aleksej Aleksandrov (Belarus) 2; Aleksey Goganov (Russia) 1.5 drew with Utkal Ranjan Sahoo (India) 1.5; Kaustuv Kundu (India) 1 lost to Mikheil Mchedlishvili (Georgia) 2. Ivan Rozum (Russia) 2 beat P Bharat Kumar Reddy (India) 1; K Rathnakaran (India) 1 lost to Stanislav Bogdanovich (Ukraine) 2; Alberto David (Italy) 2 beat Mohammad Fahad Rahman (Bangladesh) 1; Markus Lammers (Germany) 1 lost to Alexei Fedorov (Russia) 2; M R Lalith Babu (India) 2 beat Rahul Sangma (India) 1; Ranveer Mohite (India) 1.5 drew with Sahaj Grover (India) 1.5

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