Sergei Tiviakov in action on Tuesday. A Telegraph picture

Calcutta: On a day when the other Indian Grandmasters found it going tough, untitled Arghyadeep Das and IM S. Satyapragyan stole the show in the Calcutta Open Grandmaster Chess at the Gorky Sadan here on Tuesday. While Argyadeep outwitted GM Adly Ahmed of Eygpt, Satyapragyan played a brilliant game to upset seventh seed, Sergy Kasparov of Belarus. After the third round, three players — Sergei Tiviakov, Tigran Petrosian and Alon Greenfeld — are sharing the lead with three points apiece.

City-based Arghyadeep made short work of the Egyptian GM Ahmed by opting for a rarely played variation 2. b3 on the second move. The move took Ahmed off-guard as he had an inferior position as early as move 6. Argyadeep methodically exploited the weaknesses in his opponent’s position to net a pawn, and later the game.

Arghyadeep, a student of Dibyendu Barua Chess Academy, didn’t seem to be bothered about his norm but was more conscious about playing well. “Working with Barua for the last six months has helped me a great deal. I had got the requisite points for an IM norm twice facing three Grandmasters but it was not valid as I had not faced sufficient titled players...,” Arghyadip told The Telegraph.

IM S. Satyapragyan didn’t allow any respite to Sergey Kasparov of Belarus in the Scandinavian defence. Satyapragyan had a considerable bind on the position and his constant threats kept Kasparov on tenterhooks, trying to defend his weaknesses. Satyapragyan broke through on the queenside giving him two passed pawns in the process.

The star of the second round, GN Gopal playing against top seed, Sergei Tiviakov went down rather tamely in a Scadndibavian defence despite having the white pieces.

Surya Sekhar Ganguly continued with his indifferent form, barely managing a draw from an inferior position against IM PDS Girinath, while Dibyendu Barua was caught unawares in the opening in the exchange variation of the queen’s gambit declined by BT Muralikrishnan. They drew the game in a mere 16 moves.

GM Abhijit Kunte and GM RB Ramesh, too, had to split points versus the talented youngster SP Sethuraman and C. Praveen Kumar, respectively.

TOP BOARD RESULTS

G N Gopal (2) lost to Sergei Tiviakov (3); Tigran Petrosian (3) bt Niaz Murshed (2); Alon Greenfeld (3) Roktim Bandopadhyay (2); Sriram Jha (2.5) drew with Dimitri Komarov (2.5); Darmen Sadvakasov (2.5) bt Vidit Gujarathi (2); S. Satyapragyan (2.5) bt Sergey Kasparov (1.5); Abhijit Kunte (2) drew with SP Sethuraman (2); Arghyadeep Das (2.5) bt Adly Ahmed (1.50); Abdulla Al Rakib (1.5) lost to K. Ratnakaran (2.5); Abu Sufian Shakil (1.5) lost to Enamul Hossain (2.5); Deepan Chakravarthy (2) drew with Somak Palit (2); BT Muralikrishnan (2) drew with Dibyendu Barua (2); S. Kidambi (2.5) bt Rahul Shetty (1.5); Shanker Roy (1.5) lost to Safin Shukrat (2.5); Vikramaditya Kamble (2) drew with Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury (2).