Harpal Singh Bedi

New Delhi: 13-year-old unheralded Yashita Rout of Odisha, stole the show as she held Grandmaster Mitrabha Guha while seed Grandmaster Arjun Erigaisi and former national title holder Grandmaster Lalith Babu M R emerged in a seven-way lead at the top after the end of fourth round of 19^th Delhi International Grandmaster Chess tournament now underway here today

Arjun got better off Kushagra Jain without much struggle to register his fourth victory on the trot while Lalith defeated Padmesh in a one-sided affair to find himself in the leading pack along with Arjun, Visakh N R; Iniyan P, Shahil Dey, Azer Mirzoev of Azerbaijan and Seyed Kian Poormosavi of Iran.

With seven players in the front, as many as sixteen players including 13-year-old unheralded Yashita Rout of Odisha, held Grandmaster Mitrabha Guha, rated more than 1100 rating points to a creditable draw is occupying the eighth spot with a drift of half point from table leaders.    

The fourth round started as a normal tournament after the organisers had opted for the Accelerated pairing system in the first three rounds to enable the norm-seekers to have more chances in lieu of more entries. This paved the way for Yashita to have a look at top level chess.

Earlier in the third round, third seed and five-time commonwealth champion Abhijeet Gupta suffered a shock defeat from the hands of Rohith Krishna while Shahil Dey outwitted Iranian Grandmaster Masoud Mosadeghpour.

Round-4 Results (Indians otherwise stated): GM Arjun Erigaisi (4) beat Kushagra Jain (3); GM Lalith Babu M R (4) beat Padmaesh M K (3); Aritrya Pal (3) lost to GM Visakh N R (4); Gyaneshwar B (3) lost to GM Iniyan P (4); Yashita Rout (3.5) drew with GM Mitrabha Guha (3.5); GM Azer Mirzoev of Azerbaijan (4) beat Ajay Santhosh Parvathareddy (3); Mayukh Majumder (3) lost to IM Shahil Dey (4); Oishik Kundu (3) lost to FM Kian Seyed Poormosavi of Iran (4); GM Sethuramn S P (3.5) beat Shawn Pravin (3); Arshpreet Singh (2.5) lost to GM Pavel Ponkratov of Russia (3.5); Sadbhav Rautela (2.5) lost to GM Neuris Delgado Ramirez of Paraguay (3.5); GM Arjun Kalyan (3.5) beat FM Rohith Krishna S (2.5); Sushrutha Reddy (2.5) lost to GM Harsha Bharathakoti (3.5); Thirunarayanan Sampath Kumar (2.5) lost to GM Karthik Venkataraman (3.5); IM Sayantan Das (3.5) beat WIM Michelle Catherina (2.5); IM Neelash Saha (3.5) beat Dhruva Thota (2.5); Anshul Mehta (2.5) lost to IM Shyaamnikhil P (3.5); Vihaan Dumir (2.5) lost to Gholami Orimi Mahadi of Iran (3.5); IM Harshvardhan G B (3.5) beat Vakcheri Mohitha (2.5); IM Srihari L R (3.5) beat Darshan Sasthaa M (2.5); IM Anuj Shrivatri (3.5) beat Kian Dishank Shah (2.5); FM Liyanage Ranindu Dilshan (3.5) drew with Parth Belwal (2.5).

HSB