High-seed R Praggnanandhaa moved into joint lead with 5 others after his third consecutive win within the Open part of the Asian Continental Chess Championship .
The 17-year Chennai participant defeated compatriot Pranav Anand in 44 strikes to hitch fellow teenager Leon Luke Mendonca, Koustav Chatterjee, Karthikeyan Murali, Harsha Bharathakoti and Turkmenistan’s Maksat Atabayev on the prime spot with 3.5 factors after the fourth spherical.
Mendonca, who was in sole lead after the third spherical, settled for a draw with fellow Indian S L Narayanan in 49 strikes. Chatterjee posted a powerful win over eighth-seed Rinat Jumabayev (Kazakhstan). Karthikeyan, alternatively, gained towards Indian Aditya Mittal whereas GM Harsha Bharathakoti downed Sandeepan Chanda in an all-Indian contest.
Atabayev, who began because the thirty second seed, shared honours with Indian GM M Shyam Sundar in a 31-move recreation to take his tally to three.5 factors. A bunch of 11 gamers are on three factors, together with skilled Indian GMs B Adhiban, S P Sethuraman, former nationwide champion Aravindh Chithambaram and S L Narayanan.
Within the girls’s occasion, younger Indian Girl Grandmaster Priyanka Nuttaki shocked top-seed Tania Sachdev to maneuver into joint lead with compatriot Soumya Swaminathan, P V Nandhidhaa and Thi Kim Phung Vo (Vietnam). Little-known Saina Salonika, who had upset second-seeded Devaademberel Nomin-Erdene of Mongolia within the third spherical, continued her good type by beating the skilled Bhakti Kulkarni in fourth spherical on Saturday.
Girl Worldwide Grasp Rakshitta Ravi secured a draw towards Nilufar Yakubbaeva (Uzbekistan) to take her tally to 3 factors together with Salonika.