R.B. Ramesh and Himanshu Sharma jointly shared the lead after the fourth round of the Parsvnath Commonwealth Chess Championship.
NEW DELHI: Former British Open Champion Grand Master R.B. Ramesh and International Master Himanshu Sharma jointly shared the lead after the fourth round of the Parsvnath Commonwealth Chess Championship here on Wednesday.
Ramesh and Sharma were among the overnight 10-joint leaders. The two were the only players to win their matches in the fourth round at the Siri Fort Sports Auditorium.
The game on the top table between Ram Prakash and IM-elect Ashwin Jayaram ended in a draw only after a gruelling 44 moves. Ashwin found the going tough against Ram, who sacrificed his Queen for two Rooks on the 26th move. With this sacrifice, Ram was able to get good compensation for his Queen and had managed to put his Rooks in a commanding position. An upset appeared on the cards but Ashwin salvaged a valuable half-point with perpetual checks.
On the second table, Ramesh, playing white, opted for a rarely played Italian game against the highly experienced IM Mahmood Lodhi of Pakistan. In an equal middle game position, Lodhi made a mistake by exposing his King, which allowed Ramesh to create mating threats.
Lodhi was forced to give up his queen to ward off the threats but the compensation was not enough and he had to surrender on move 51 in the face of imminent defeat.
Sharma defeated Prasanjit Datta from the white side of the Ruy Lopez exchange variation. Sharma took advantage of the bad pawn structure and Bishop of Prasanjit to score a full point on 49 moves.
Top seeded Surya Sekhar Ganguly bounced back into the joint second position by crushing Prathamesh Mokal in just 23 moves of the Sicilian Defense with a score of 3.5.
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}