Abu Dhabi: Swedish Grand Master (GM) Nils Grandelius broke away from the rest of the pack to emerge as the lone leader on four points after a hard-fought victory over GM Vladimir Belous of Russia in the 22nd Abu Dhabi International Chess Festival Masters Tournament late on Tuesday.
The fourth round encounter was the last match of the day and Grandelius, seeded 12th, took 90 moves to prevail over Belous, who is ranked 35.
UAE GM and title hope Salem A R Saleh, after a peerless first three rounds, was forced to settle for a draw with Georgian GM Baadur Jobava. He is now tied for second spot with Venezuela’s Eduardo Bonelli Iturrizaga, Ukranian’s Yuriy Kuzubov and Martyn Kravtsiv. All are on 3.5 points each.
It was also a day to forget for the UAE’s other representatives, three of whom were beaten by Indian opponents. Fine Master (FM) Nabil Saleh lost to D. Harika, FM Ebrahim Sultan was tamed by Rakesh Kulkarni and Ahmad Abbas Khouri was beaten by M Vinoth Kumar.
Fareed Ahmad also went down to Kanan Heydarli of Azerbaijan, but Mohammad Ebrahim Khouri was able to hold his own against compatriot Zayed Ali Al Hamed.
A lot was expected of the big India contingent, but they struggled on the first three days.
But after three forgettable rounds, Indian GMs Sandeep Gupta, Sandipan Chanda, Dronavalli Harika and Debashish Das all won their respective matches.
Other Indians in the fray, GM Suri Vaibhav, GM G N Gopal, WGM Soumya Swaminathan and Siva Mahadevan also ended the day on a winning note.
International Master Eesha Karavade drew her game with Iranian GM Ehsan Maghami Ghaem and has 2.5 points to her name.
