By Kirti Patil
Pune: Kolhapur’s Shriraj Bhosale scored an impressive upset win over Karnataka’s Devaki Prasad, who is placed 324 ELO points above him. The Kolhapur player, playing with black pieces, defeated the titled player in 59 moves. Shriraj Bhosale was in fine form, delivering a great result for Maharashtra in the fourth-round match of the 60th National Chess Championship being played at the Boxing Hall of the Balewadi Sports Complex here on Saturday.
Top Seeded Grandmaster Abhijeet Gupta, who lost on Friday in round 3, was pitted against GM Slayer Balkishan A (1800) who had beaten GM P. Karthikeyan in round 2. Playing on board 27, GM Abhijeet Gupta, justified his top seeding by beating Balkishan with the black pieces in just over an hour.
M Abhimanyu Puranik, playing on board 1 with 3/3 points, defeated his opponent in a fine technical game. Puranik, looked extremely relaxed and had the game under his control throughout. Puranik kept a full score and was in the lead with seven others on top boards.
On Board 3, IM Nitin S (2386) drew with the seasoned GM Surya Shekhar Ganguly (2583) with black pieces. Nitin had a small advantage in the middle game, but it was neutralized when he exchanged his strong queen with Ganguly’s weak queen, resulting in an equal position.
FM Dhananjay S. who had defeated GM Abhijeet Gupta in round 3, playing on board 11, drew with GM Venkatesh MR from PSPB, finding the perfect moves in the middle game.
Results (Fourth Round):
Abhimanyu Puranik (4) (AAI) bt Arghyadip Das (3) (RSPB);
Srihari LR (3) (TN) lost to Sethuraman SP (4) (PSPB);
Nitin, S (3.5) (RSPB) drew with Surya Shekhar Ganguly (3.5) (PSPB);
Soham, Kamotra (3.5) (J&K) drew with Diptayan Ghosh (3.5) (Ben);
Mitrabha Guha (4) (Ben) bt Krishna, CRG (3) (RSPB);
Utsab, Chatterjee (3) (Ben) lost to Iniyan, P (4) (TN);
Vignesh, NR (4) (RSPB) bt Utkal Sahoo (3) (ODI);
Aakash Dalvi (3) (MAH) lost to Sayantan Das (4) (RSPB);
Deep Sengupta (4) (PSPB) bt Rajesh Nayak (3) (ODI);
Akash, G (3) (TN) lost to Praveen, Kumar C (4) (TN);
Dhananjay, S (3.5) (Cht) drew with Venkatesh MR (3.5) (PSPB);
Anuj, Shrivatri (3.5) (MP) drew with Bhaavan Kolla (3.5) (AP);
Visakh, NR (3) (RSPB) drew with Indrajeet Mahindrakar (3) (Mah);
Sudhir Kumar Sinha (2.5) (Bih) lost to Aronyak Ghosh (3.5pts) (RSPB);
Aanjaneya Phatak (2.5) (Mah) lost to Deepan, Chakkravarthy J (3.5) (RSPB);
Neelash, Saha (3.5) (RSPB) bt Siddhant Gawai (2.5) (Mah);
IM Prasad Devaki V (2.5) lost to Shriraj Bhosale (3.5);
