Sumit shocks Bykhovsky; Negi, Gupta also score victories

New Delhi: In a major upset, young Sumit Grover stunned Russian Grandmaster Avigdor Bykhovsky in the third round of the ninth Parsvnath International Open Grandmasters Chess Tournament here on Sunday.

Grover, the young player from Jammu and Kashmir, made mockery of the rating difference of 384 points to upstage Bykhovsky, rated 2428 at Ludlow Castle Sports Complex. Playing white side of Volga Gambit opening, Grover uprooted the defence of his fancied rival in just 30 moves. Meanwhile, Indian Grandmasters Parimarjan Negi, Abhijeet Gupta and Arun Prasad maintained their winning momentum along with top seed Alexander Areshchenko, Slovenian Grandmaster Lenic Luka and Mikhailo Oleksienko of Ukraine. Negi beat Akash PC Iyer while Abhijeet and Arun Prasad got the better off Ahmed Feroz of Bangladesh and N Surendran respectively. Areschchenko had an easy day in the office against Kerala youngster S L Narayanan while Lenic outwitted Kapil Lohana.Earlier in the second round, city based International Masters Sahaj Grover and Rahul Sangma produced emphatic victories over second seed Chinese Grandmaster Ni Hua and Alon Greenfeld of Israel respectively while Bykhovsky outwitted third seed Yuriy Kuzubov of Ukraine. Karnataka youngster Stany G A and R Premnath held Grandmaster Hannes Stefansson of Iceland and Ziaur Rahman of Bangladesh respectively to creditable draws. PTI