Delhi International Chess: Sri Lankan Liyanage beats grandmaster Gukesh

New Delhi, March 23 (IANS) India's youngest ever grandmaster D Gukesh suffered a shocking defeat at the hands of unheralded Ranindu Liyanage of Sri Lanka in the second round of the 19th Delhi International Open Chess tournament here on Wednesday.

On a day when second seed Pavel Ponkratov of Russia, third seed local star and defending champion Abhijeet Gupta and fourth seed Neuris Delgado Ramirez of Paraguay were held to draws by lesser rated opponents, top seed Arjun Erigaisi cruised for his second straight win at the expense of seasoned Grandmaster P Karthikeyan.

For Gukesh it was simply a bad day in the office when nothing worked right. Playing the black side of a French defense, the Indian held a comfortable position but it was not easy to convert into a full point. As the pieces changed hands at regular intervals, Gukesh found the going tough as he kept looking for an elusive victory.

Liyanage kept himself in the game by keeping the position quiet for a long time and later launched an offensive through a rook invasion on the seventh rank in the rook and minor piece endgame. The Sri Lankan got a dangerous passed pawn on the queen side that netted him a full piece and it was all over soon.

Gupta was held to a draw by former National Women's champion Padmini Rout. Rout had to part with a piece for a couple of pawns out of a London system game as black but her never-say-die approach paid off handsomely in the end. Gupta missed one chance at a crucial juncture and did not get any clear opportunity thereafter despite the extra material.

The game was drawn when Gupta decided he could no longer make any headways. The Delhi open is being played under FIDE's Swiss rules and there are eight rounds still remaining in the Rupees Twenty Five Lakh prize money tournament.

Important Results Round 2: (Indians otherwise stated):- GM Arjun Erigaisi (2) beat GM Karthikeyan P (1); IM Sidhant Mohapatra (1.5) drew with GM Pavel Ponkratov of Russia (1.5); GM Abhijeet Gupta (1.5) drew with IM Padmini Rout (1.5); IM Anuj Shrivatri (1.5) drew with GM Neuris Delgado Ramirez of Paraguay (1.5); GM Sethuraman S P (2) beat Utasab Chatterjee (1); FM Liyanage Ranindu Dilshan of Sri Lanka (2) beat GM Gukesh D (1); GM Lalith Babu M R (2) beat IM Sai Agni Jeevitesh J (1); IM Ratnakaran K (1) lost to GM Visakh N R (2); GM Deepan Chakkravarthy (1.5) drew with FM Rohith Krishna S (1.5); Dhanjay S (1) lost to GM Iniyan P (1.5); GM Masoud Modadeghpour of Iran (2) beat IM Somak Palit (1); WGM Divya Deshmukh (1) lost to GM Mitrabha Guha (1); GM Arjun Kalyan (1.5) drew with IM Dinesh Sharma (1.5); FM Aaryan Varshney(1.5) drew with GM Harsha Bharathakoti (1.5); GM Adham Fawzy of Egypt (2) beat Rohit S (1); Bharat Kumar Reddy Poluri (1) lost to GM Karthik Venkataraman (2); IM Raahul V S (1) lost to FM Seyed Kian Poormosavi of Iran (2); WIM Arpita Mukherjee (1) lost to GM Azer Mirzoev of Azerbaijan (2); IM Arash Tahbaz of Iran (2) beat FM LMST Desilva of Sri Lanka (1); WGM Srija Seshadri (2) beat IM CRG Krishna (1).