Andhra Pradesh youngster Swarna Nihal recorded an upset victory over 3rd seed J Ramkrishna of Telangana in the fourth round of the 16th GH Raisoni Memorial International FIDE Rating Chess Tournament in progress at GH Raisoni Institute of Information and Technology, Shraddha Park, Wadi Hingna Link Road. The chess festival is being organised by GH Raisoni Sport and Cultural Foundation jointly with Kalpana Prakash Welfare Foundation and is recognised by Chess Association Nagpur, Maharashtra Chess Association, AICF and FIDE.

 

The fourth round of the event was inaugurated by Nirbhay Sancheti, Director, SMS Group of Industries. It was a tough day for the seasoned players who found the battle difficult to surpass. On the top board, Nihal replied with Caro Kann Defence to the king pawn opening of Ramkrishna. Nihal equalised early denying the first move advantage of Ramkrishna. Ramkrishna took the game to endgame level but could not make headway and registered a victory after a long fought game lasting 81 moves.

 

On the second board, veteran Kiran Panditrao lost to Kumar Gaurav of Bihar in 38 moves in a game arising out of Guico Piano Opening. The third board saw Indrajeet Mahindrakar scoring a victory over Yohan Boricha. Veteran player KN Gopal of Telangana fell prey to the strict gadget rules when he forgot the keep aside the earpods at the start of round. His young opponent Daksh Goyal from Delhi aware of rules raised the issue and Gopal was declared ‘lost’. IA Ajinkya Pingle is the chief arbiter for the event who is being assisted by FA Amit Tembhurne, FA Swati Kumbhalkar, FA Shubham Soni, SNA Shyam Agrawal, SNA Prayas Ambade, SNA Sagar Sakhare, Prathamesh Machave and Shishir Indurkar.