New Delhi (30 Oct 2022) :- After five hours of grueling battle, eleventh seed Woman Grandmaster Priyanka Nuttaki (above left) shocked top seed and former Asian Woman Champion Tania Sachdev to share the lead with three others at 3.5 points each after 4 rounds of the Asian Continental Women’s Chess Championship. Watch live games on chess.com and chess24 and for women.
Saina Salonika (above left) downed fourth seed and 2016 edition winner Bhakti Kulkarni to tie for the lead at 3.5 points each together with WGM Nandhidhaa P V of India and WGM Vo Thi Kim Phung of Vietnam.
The Asian Continental Chess Championship is being organized by the All India Chess Federation under the auspices of the Asian Chess Federation and FIDE at the Leela Ambience Convention Hotel in New Delhi, India. Visit chess-results.com to download games.
In the Open section, top seed Praggnanandhaa R (above left) defeated IM Pranav Anand to join overnight sole leader Leon Luke Mendonca and four others in the leaders board. Pragganandhaa and Mendonca now have the company of compatriot Karthikeyan Murali, Harsha Bharathakoti, Turkmenistan Grandmaster Maksat Atabayev and International Master Koustav Chatterjee with 3.5 points each after 4 rounds.
On top board Mendonca (above left) showed great defensive skill to hold second seed Narayanan S L while Karthikeyan Murali outwitted Aditya Mittal in fine crafted play with a pair of bishops. Harsha Bharthakoti (below right) joined the leaders after capitalizing on crucial errors made by his Indian Grandmaster rival 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.
GM Praggnanandhaa R thrilled spectators with his sacrificial attack against Pranav Anand (see diagram below after White’s 26. g5) when Pragg unleashed 26 … Na2!
Pragg forced resignation on the 44th move (diagram below). Replay the game in chess.com
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 at joint leaders position along with Priyanka, Nandhidhaa and Soumya Swaminathan, who beat Thi Mai Hung Nguyen of Vietnam in the fourth round encounter.