The 24th seed GM Ziaur Rahman of Bangladesh defeated Vietnamese GM Tran Tuan Minh to emerge as the new sole leader after the end of the fourth round of 16th Delhi International Chess tournament. At the end of three rounds, eleven players had shared the lead.
More than 2000 chess players from across India are participating in this mega event which is being organised by Delhi Chess Association under the aegis of All India Chess Federation. Players from 29 countries from around the world are playing in the tournament, breaking the previous record of 28 countries set by the 2017 edition of the same tournament.
The 'A' category of the tournament has managed to better itself in terms of cash prize and strength as for the first time in Indian history, a 2700+ elo rated player will be playing in a Classical GM Open. The total prize money is Rs 77 lakh. The premier event has 27 Grand Masters and 24 International Masters.
Rahman showed immense discipline and skill to beat Tran Tuan. It was a Trompovsky Opening from Rahman who had the white pieces but Tran Minh played pretty accurately and was having a better position. Early in the middle game, Black had stifled the position on the kingside where Rahman had swung his rook. Meanwhile, Rahman had expanded on the queenside. But Tran Minh made a very strange move when he castled kingside where Rahman was able to break open the position and swiftly drum up an attack on black's king.
All other co-leaders could only draw their games and hence, the Bangladeshi grandmaster leads alone with 4.0/4.
In the B-category with 783 players being held simultaneously, 8 rounds of play have been completed and with two rounds to go, Shubham of Haryana rated 1915, and Subhra Saha, of West Bengal, rated 1727, lead together with 7.5/8.
"This is a historic moment for Indian chess as we welcome the 16th edition of the Delhi GM Open. We started small back in 2003, but now it is already boasting a record prize fund. This tournament has proved to be a boon to every chess player in India. It is our honor to serve Indian chess and Indian chess players," said Bharat Singh Chauhan, president of Delhi Chess Association.