New Delhi Television
October 15

Upsets continued to be the order of the day in the third round of the Tata International Chess tournament with unheralded Vinod Bhagwat defeating British Champion Abhijit Kunte and Arindam Mukherjee knocking off Grandmaster Marat Dzhumaev of Uzbekistan.

As many as 14 players maintained their clean slate with an absolute score of three points apiece after the third round on Tuesday.

Prominent among them were Grandmaster Pentyala Harikrishna, Commonwealth Champion Dibyendu Barua, Alexander Fominyh of Russia, Saidali Iuldashev of Uzbekistan, and the Bangladeshi duo – Niaz Murshed and Zia-ur Rahman.

Vinod Bhagwat, who drew with top seeded GM Dmityy Svetushkin of Moldova in the second round, had another good result against Abhijit after the latter tried hard to make headways in a dynamically balanced position in the match on Tuesday.

Arindam opted for a side variation with white against Marat's Leningrad Dutch and troubled him right through the game with an imaginative attack. Marat's counterplay bid did materialise in the middle game but Arindam was quite up to the task after the Uzbek erred decisively.

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