Top seed Levan Pantsulaia outclasses Bhaavan Kolla

Mumbai, Jun 18 (PTI) Top seed GM Levan Pantsulaia of Georgia defeated Bhaavan Kolla in the second round to maintain his fine run in the Aurionpro Mumbai International Grandmaster Chess Tournament here on Wednesday.

Pantsulaia showcased his class by defeating Kolla in 33 moves with the French variation of the Sicilian Defence.

Meanwhile, GM Manuel Petrosyan employed the London System and brilliantly converted an exchange sacrifice into a full point against Prakash Ram, while GM Luka Paichadze played a sharp and aggressive Caro-Kann to dismantle Rachit Gurnani.

However, the second round wasn’t without its surprises as Hemal Varshan held Manas Gaikwad (ELO 2232) to a draw.

Key results (Round 2): Bhaavan Kolla (0) lost to Pantsulaia Levan (1); Petrosyan Manuel (1) beat Prakash Ram (0); Rachit Gurnani (0) lost to Paichadze Luka (1); Nikitenko Mihail (1) beat Devesh Naik (0); Vyom Malhotra (0) lost to Lalit Babu (1); Gharibyan Mamikon (1) beat Nisha Jawalkar (0); Arhan Jain (0) lost to Savchenko Boris (1); Vedant Panesar (1) beat Vedant Varasada (0); Jagreet Misra (0) lost to Sanikidze Tornike (1); Deepan Chakravarthy (1) beat Medhvansh Madeti (0). PTI UNG TAP