Tamil Nadu teen defeats Grandmaster in Mumbai chess tournament

Mumbai, Jan 3 (PTI) FIDE Master Rathanvel VS of Tamil Nadu caused a major stir on day four of the IIFL Wealth 3rd Mumbai International Open Chess Tournament as he notched a victory over Russian Grandmaster Andrey Deviatkin in a closely-fought battle.

Many other Grandmasters, including defending champion Adam Tukhaev of Ukraine, had a tough day and could only draw against relatively lower-rated opponents, a media release issued here said.

Going into round 5, Grandmasters David Alberto (Italy), Adam Horvath (Hungary), Deepan Chakkravarthy (India), International Master Nitin S and FIDE Master Rathanvel (both India) are in lead with a score of 4 points, it said.

In the junior section, top-seed Gukesh D of Tamil Nadu was held to an upset draw by Vrandesh Parekh from Gujarat.

City kid Om Manish Kadam, who is the national under-9 champion, however, continued on his winning ways. He leads the tournament with five other players - Anuj Shrivatri, Nikhil Magizhnan, Ashutosh Banerjee, Mahitosh Dey and Aaryan Varshney.

A total of 600 players from 25 countries are participating across the two sections of this tournament, which is being held at the Mount Litera School International, Bandra, and has a cumulative prize fund of Rs 20 lakh