Turkish prodigy Yağız Kaan Erdoğmuş, currently the youngest grandmaster (GM) in the world and fourth youngest in history, continued his brilliant run Monday night to remain in the lead after three rounds in the 24th Dubai Open Chess Tournament at the Dubai Chess and Culture Club.
Erdoğmuş completed his final grandmaster norm in Germany in April and is only awaiting approval from the International Chess Federation to finalize his GM title. The young Turkish talent defeated Fide Master (FM) Erik Hakobyan of Armenia for his third point.
Joining Erdoğmuş in the lead is IM Aronyak Ghosh, currently India’s highest-rated IM, who scored an upset victory over Turkey’s GM Vahap Sanal.
Playing the white pieces in a Queen’s pawn game, Ghosh sacrificed a pawn on the 17th move to establish firm control of the centre, which would later anchor a powerful attack against black’s king on the way to a 27-move win.
Ghosh and Erdoğmuş momentarily sat at the top of the standings as the rest of the other co-leaders were still playing their games.
Meanwhile, after being derailed by a draw in the second round, former Asian Chess Championship winner GM S.P. Sethuraman of India got back to winning ways with a 28-move victory over IM Khanim Balajayeva of Azerbaijan.
With the win, Sethuraman upped his score to 2.5 points on two wins and a draw, half a point behind the leaders. Second-seed GM Raunk Sadhwani also has 2.5 points after settling for a draw with GM Dai Changren on the first board.
In Category B, Indian youngsters Taksh Sharma and AIM Vihaan Dumir grabbed a share of the lead with three points apiece with wins over Mushota Kantalamba of Zasmbia and Eldor Makhamataliev of Uzbekistan respectively.
The fourth round of the tournament will start at 5pm on Tuesday.