Canny Srihari shocks Russian GM Savchenko

Bengaluru: Young Srihari L of Puducherry began the New Year with the biggest win of his career as he shocked 14th seed Grandmaster Boris Savchenko of Russia in the second round of the 1st Bangalore International Grandmasters Open Chess tournament here on Friday.Top seed Abhijeet Gupta was held to a draw by Karnataka’s GM MS Thejkumar in the third round. Gupta, who beat IM Avinash Ramesh in the second round, has a tally of 2.5 points. Legendary English GM Nigel Short faced a stiff challenge from young Goutham Krishna H before winning in the second round and then added the scalp of Amit Doshi Moksh in the third to be in joint lead. A total of seven players, including Karnataka's young GM Pranav Anand and IM Antonio Dcunha Viani, share the lead. The 17-year-old, who won the World U-16 title in 2022, got the better of Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury in the second round before beating Vietnam GM Duc Hoa Nguyen in the third round.It was Srihari’s first victory against Savchenko, who had defeated the Indian during their previous two matches. Playing black, Srihari, who has a rating of 2288 points, opted for the Classical Sicilian variation and worked his way past the Russian's defence to score his second straight win at the Sree Kanteerava indoor stadium. The Russian had the option to force a draw but went down to the youngster as he pressed hard for the victory.Srihari, who had downed Rishi Vijayakumar in the first round, failed to continue his fine show as he crashed to a defeat in the third round against Sammed Jaykumar Shete of Maharashtra, who jumped into joint lead.In Category B, Karnataka's Bhuvan Krishna Prasanth scored his fourth consecutive victory to share the lead with 20 others. Select results: Category A: Round 3: Abhijeet Gupta (Ind, 2.5) drew with Thejkumar MS (Ind, 2.5); Nigel Short (Eng, 3) bt Amit Doshi Moksh (Ind, 2); Aronyak Ghosh (Ind, 2.5) drew with RR Laxman (Ind, 2.5); Pranav Anand (Ind, 3) bt Duc Hoa Nguyen (Vie, 2); Aswath S (Ind, 2.5) drew with Mitrabha Guha (Ind, 2.5) Round 2: Avinash Ramesh (Ind, 1) lost to Abhijeet (2); Goutham Krishna H (Ind, 1) lost to N Short (2); Suyog Wagh (Ind, 1) lost to Aronyak (Ind, 2); Saurabh Anand (Ind, 1.5) drew with Iniyan (Ind, 1.5); Saptarshi RC (Ind, 1) lost to Pranav Anand (Ind, 2).
Stay updated with the latest news on Times of India. Don't miss daily games like Crossword, Sudoku, and Mini Crossword.