Neelash defeats top seed, three-way lead after round 4 in Kathmandu Open 2018

by Shahid Ahmed - 14/04/2018

Reigning West Bengal State Champion, 16-year old Neelash Saha defeated top seed GM Sergey Volkov of Russia in round 4 of Kathmandu Open 2018. It was the biggest upset of the day. At the end of round 4, there is a three-way tie between GM Tarlev Konstantin of Ukraine, GM Sergey Kasparov of Belarus and GM Alon Greenfeld of Israel. Among round 3 upsets, untitled Patil Pratik drew with GM Deep Sengupta, Harshita Guddanti drew with IM Harsha Bharathakoti, Anustoop Biswas drew with GM Sriram Jha and Nepali Badrilal defeated IM Alina L'ami. In this report we bring you games, photos and videos from round 3 and 4 of Kathmandu Open 2018. Photo: Nongsha Angom

Rough patch for top seed Sergey Volkov continues

Neelash Saha after defeating the top seed of the tournament, former Russia champion, GM Sergey Volkov

Neelash sacrificed his Knight in 19th move, arising out of Catalan Opening. To capitalize on the initiative, he offered another Knight in 23rd move which his opponent declined, but he had to give up his Queen in the next move, making him get a Queen for three pieces. Neelash converted the attack brilliantly and with a sharp play won the game in 44 moves convincingly.

Round 3 highlights

Patil Pratik drew with GM Deep Sengupta in Modern Defence | Photo: Nongsha Angom

Harshita Guddanti drew with IM Harsha Bharathakoti in a sharp tactical game from Open Catalan opening

GM Sriram Jha managed to save the game after losing an exchange in Albin-Counter Gambit

Nepali Badrilal shocked Alina L'ami in English Opening and defeated her

Round 4 highlights

Battle of the generations: GM Alexander Fominyh drew with GM Sandipan Chanda in Dutch Defence

Padmini gave up a pawn in Giuco Piano which Tarlev recovered and gave it away, eventually he won in a Rook-Pawn ending

GM Tarlev Konstantin is among the leaders at the end of round 4

GM Azer Mirzoev drew with IM P Shyam Nikhil in 4.5+ hours long, 110 moves marathon game

Pairings/Results

Round 5 on 2018/04/15 at 09:00 NST

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	4	GM	Tarlev Konstantin	2549	4		4	GM	Kasparov Sergey	2462	7
2	6	GM	Greenfeld Alon	2490	4		3½	GM	Sandipan Chanda	2579	2
3	14	IM	Shyaamnikhil P	2385	3½		3½	GM	Sengupta Deep	2579	3
4	30		Harshavardhan G B	2119	3½		3½	GM	Mirzoev Azer	2504	5
5	8	IM	Harsha Bharathakoti	2424	3½		3½	GM	Fominyh Alexander	2391	13
6	10	IM	Gusain Himal	2413	3½		3½		Neelash Saha	2212	25
7	23		Patil Pratik	2258	3½		3½	IM	Prince Bajaj	2409	11
8	12	GM	Sriram Jha	2392	3½		3½	IM	Deshmukh Anup	2282	21
9	36		Subhayan Kundu	2079	3		3	IM	Llaneza Vega Marcos	2422	9
10	15		Kaustuv Kundu	2381	3		3	FM	Hamal Manish	2058	38
11	44		Puri Rajan	1994	3		3	IM	Padmini Rout	2360	16
12	18	IM	L'ami Alina	2316	3		3		Sonkalan Bharati	2050	39
13	19	FM	Gajwa Ankit	2292	3		3		Nepali Badrilal	2020	41
14	20		Navalgund Niranjan	2286	3		3		Kavinda Akila	1996	42
15	22	CM	Thing Bibek	2263	3		3	CM	Niraula Bhupendra	1994	43
16	45		Panta Sumit	1993	3		3	IM	Suvrajit Saha	2234	24
17	26		Ramaraju N	2175	3		3	CM	Rajbhandari Rijendra	1959	50
18	27	FM	Mohammed Abdul Malek	2171	3		3	WFM	Lakshmi C	1942	53
19	28	FM	Shantharam K.V.	2163	3		3		Jati Bikram	1830	68
20	51		Tamang Thendup	1953	3		3	FM	Jaiswal Rupesh	2121	29

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