Ishan Roy stuns former champ Parab in Grand Prix Chess Series

Mumbai, March 14 (IANS) Ram Vishal Parab, winner of the second leg, crashed to an upset defeat against Ishan Roy (ELO 1609) in the third round of the Rs 2.50 lakh prize money Grand Prix Chess Series, organised by Indian Chess School at the Russian Centre for Science & Culture here on Thursday. 

Ishan played as white and selected the Ruy Lopez Opening against Ram. Despite being up against a skilled opponent, Ishan kept the game balanced during the early middle game. But then, Ram made a big mistake, losing a piece and from there, Ishan used his skills to clinch the most significant victory of his career, which was also recognised as the best by GM Pravin Thipsay.

The higher-rated Sanjeev Mishra was unable to secure a win and ended up with a draw against Sunil Vaidya in Table 5.

Except for the two mentioned results, the rest followed the expected pattern, with the top-seeded players continuing their winning streaks. This includes IM Vikramaditya Kulkarni, Arvind Iyer, Arnav Koli, Yohan Boricha, Ishan Roy, Guru Prakash, Yash Kapadi, Mihir Shah, and Vivek Jadhav. All these players have won three consecutive matches, putting them jointly in the lead.

Key results of Round 3:

Butala Krish (2) lost to Kulkarni Vikramaditya (3); Iyer Arvind (3) beat Pawar Sohum (2), Nirvaan Shah (2) lost to Arnav Koli (3), Yuti Patel (2) lost to Boricha Yohan (3), Mishra Sanjeev (2½) drew Sunil Vaidya (2½), Ishan Roy (3) beat am Parab (2), Guru Prakash (3) beat Arjun Singh (2), Muthe Dhruv (2) lost to Kapadi Yash (3), Shah Mihir (3) beat Shraddha Padvekar (2), Soni Atharv (2) lost to Vivek Jadhav (3), Sarode Aarush (2) lost to Soni Deepak (3).