12-year-old Ishaan Tendolkar holds IM Vikramaditya Kulkarni in All India FIDE Rating Chess

In what can be termed as a major upset so far in the event, 12-year-old Ishaan Tendolkar played the game of his life to hold the top-seed and International Master (IM) Vikramaditya Kulkarni to a draw in the third round of the SBI Life All India FIDE Rating Chess Tournament here on Sunday.

In their encounter on the top board, Ishaan, playing black, opted for the Modern Benoni Defense to the Queen Pawn Opening of Vikramaditya Kulkarni and soon gained equality.

Kulkarni used all his experience to try and outwit Ishaan (ELO 1238) but the youngster was equal to the task. The players called for a truce after a marathon of 96 moves.

The results on boards 2 to 6 were on expected lines as the second seed, FM Saurabh Khherdekar (ELO 2090), 3rd seeded Raghav (2066), 4th seeded Arnav Kherdekar (ELO 1722, 6th seeded Guru Prakash (ELO 1691) and 7th seeded Yohan Boricha (1639) registered wins over their respective opponents to take the lead.

The lead is now shared by 12 players, who have three points from three wins. A group of nine players are following the leaders with 2.5/3.

Six more rounds are still to be played in this Rs 3.00 lakh prize money tourney, which is being conducted by India Chess School.

Important results:

Round 3: Vikramaditya Kulkarni (2.5) drew Ishaan (2.5), Atharv (2) lost to Saurabh Khherdekar (3), Raghav (3) beat Sara (2), Shirish (2) lost to Arnav Kherdekar (3), Guru Prakash (3) beat Vedanshi (2), Yohan (3) beat Karan (2), Shravana (2) lost to Shanmukha (3), Darsh (3) beat Shriram (2), Arjun (2) lost to Aayush (3), Vihaan (2) lost to Atharv.

-IANS

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