India’s highest-rated International Master (IM) Aronyak Ghosh pulled ahead of the field after scoring his second straight point in Sunday night’s second round of the 24th Dubai Open Chess Tournament at the Dubai Chess and Culture Club.
The 20-year-old Ghosh, who took the bronze medal in the 2023 Indian national championships ahead of several grandmasters, defeated 15-year-old prodigy IM Kevin George Micheal of Egypt to move up to two points in the nine-round Swiss system tournament.
Playing the black side of a Sicilian Defence game, the Indian made a rare foray of the black queen to a5 on the sixth move to try to confuse the young Egyptian.
The ploy eventually worked as Micheal gradually lost the thread of the game until he committed a fatal blunder on the 21st move that allowed Ghosh to unleash a tactical blow that would win a piece. Ghosh wrapped up the game on the 33rd move.
Also moving up to two points was Fide Master (FM) Erik Hakobyan of Armenia. After a big upset win over China’s Grandmaster (GM) Zhu Jiner in the first round, Hakobyan picked up another huge victory, this time without lifting a finger after a win by default over Azerbaijani top-seed GM Teimour Radjabov.
As of press time, GM Raunak Sadhwani of India, the highest-rated player among the first-round leaders, was still locked in battle against compatriot IM V S Rathanvel, while GM Eltaj Safarli of Azerbaijan was nursing a slight advantage against IM Oliver Dimakiling of the Philippines. The rest of the first-round leaders were also still playing as of press time.
The tournament resumes with the third round on Monday from 5pm at the Dubai Chess and Culture Club.