Third-seeded Amardeep Bartakke (ELO 2049) faced quite a challenge from 15-year-old Malay Krishna (ELO 1520) before settling for a draw in round-4 of SBI Life FIDE Rating Chess Tournament, and played at the Russian Cultural Centre on Tuesday. The young Malay put up a solid fight from the white side of London System Opening and did not allow the seasoned campaigner Amardeep much leeway to create any sort of opportunities. Amardeep had no option but to sign a peace treaty after 50 moves.
Amardeep Bartakke
The trend of lower rated player’s impressive play was also witnessed on board 4, as 4th seeded Santosh Khedekar (ELO 2015) was held to a draw by Prajapal Shendre (ELO 1324) in the game arising out of Bishop’s opening.
Barring these two games, the other results on the top boards went on the expected lines — FM Sajandas Joshi (ELO 2120), Gopal Rathod (ELO 1842) and Ketan Patil (ELO 1748) won their respective encounters. Joshi, Rathod and Patil along with four other players jointly share the lead with three points each.
A group of nine players are adrift by half-a-point and are following the leaders with a score of 2.5 points.
The event is being organized by Indian Chess School at Russian Cultural Centre.
Key Results of Round 3: FM S.G. Joshi S G (3) beat Rishi Kadam (2); Krishna Malay (2.5) drew Amardeep Bartakke (2.5); Santhosh Khedekar (2.5) drew Prajapal Shendre (2.5); Potawad Anirddha (2) lost to Gopal Rathod (3); Bang Atharva (2) lost to Ketan Patil (3); Ritvik Krishnan (2) lost to Sanjeev Mishra (3); Akshit Jha (3) beat Sparsh Shah (2); Kunnekar Vanshri (2) lost to Bhuta Hriday (3); Gengaje Pratik (3) beat Vikas Chaudhari (2); Pritam Panda (2.5) drew Beat Shirish Khodwe (2.5).