Murali, Iniyan and Daneshvar share lead

Al Ain (UAE), May 10 (PTI) Indian Grandmasters Murali Karthikeyan and P Iniyan, and Iranian Bardiya Daneshvar shared the lead on 3.5 points after the end of the fourth round of the Asian Continental Chess Championship here on Saturday.

Pranav Anand proved Indian bench strength, holding highly regarded top seed Nihal Sarin to a draw. Sarin has accumulated three points.

Iniyan got the better of Meng Yihan while Iranian Sina Mohaved was no match for Karthikeyan.

In the women’s section, Mungunzul Bat-Erdene of Mongolia and Afruza Khamdanova of Uzbekistan emerged as co-leaders with a perfect score of four points.

Srija Sheshadri is the best performing Indian in this section with 3.5 points to her kitty.

Important and Indian results round 4 (Indians unless specified): Shamsiddin Vokhidov (Uzb, 3) drew with Bardiya Daneshvar (Iri, 3.5); Pranav Anand (3) drew with Nihal Sarin (3); Sina Movahed (2.5) lost to Murali Karthikeyan (3.5); A R Saleh Salem (Uae, 3) drew with Prraneeth Vuppala (3); Xu Xiangyu (Chn, 3) drew with L R Srihari (3); Yang Zilong (Chn, 3) drew with M Pranesh (3); P Iniyan (3.5) beat Meng Yihan (Chn, 2.5); A R Ilamparthi 2) lost to Aleksey Grebnev (Fid, 3); Leon Luke Mendonca (3) beat Sugar Gan-Erdene (Phi, 2); Siddharth Jagadeesh (2) lost to Abhimanyu Puranik (3); Surya Shekhar Ganguly (2.5) drew with Ivan Rozum (2.5); G B Harshavardhan (3) beat Mikahil Demidov (Fid, 2).

Women: Anastasia Bodnaruk (Fid, 4) beat Valentina Gunina (Fid, 3); Mungunzul Bat-Erdene (Mgl, 4) beat Afruza Khamdamova (Uzb, 3); Olgas Girya (Fid, 3) drew with Srija Seshadri (3.5); Vantika Agrawal (3) drew with Liya Kurmangaliyeva (Kaz, 3); P V Nandhidhaa (3) beat Melika Mohammadi (2); Rakshitta Ravi (3) beat Nisha Mohota (2); Arshiya Das (3) beat Munkhzul Turmunkh (Mgl, 2); Galina Mikheeva (Fid, 2) lost to B Savitha Shri (3). PTI Corr PDS PDS PDS