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Konguvel scores upset win

India's former National A champion P Konguvel scored a sensational upset, over defending champion and International Master V Georgiev of Bulgaria to edge into a good position, just half a point behind the leaders at the end of the fourth round of the Balaguer International Open Chess Tournament.

GM Lev Pshakis and IM Narcisso Dublan, with four points each, were leading the field with an unbeaten record at the end of in four rounds.

One of those to go down was India's V Saravanan, who made a mistake in the English opening against IM Dublan.

Playing white in the Marcozy bind structure, Konguvel, who had earlier beaten Sanchez Lopez in the previous round, maintained the balance in a middlegame without queens, against the highly rated Bulgarian. Georgiev made the mistake of trying too hard in an essentially equal, static position, and paid the price when Konguvel capitalised on an error.

K Sasikiran, who has been having a fine year thus far, however made the same mistake, of trying too hard in an equal position, and went down to IM Mollov of Bulgaria, losing from an equal knight and pawn ending.

Among the other Indians in the fray, Neelotpal Das, Rahul Shetty and Sandipan Chanda accounted for their opponents without much difficulty to reach three points apiece, while Roktim Bandopadhyay (2.5) drew with Nontolin Torne.

Surya Shekhar Ganguly (2), however, went down to Gurro Pham in a Sicilian Dragon variation.