Calcutta: Top seed Nigel Short and Surya Sekhar Ganguly sit pretty with four points apiece at the top after Round IV of the LIC International Grandmasters Chess tournament — organised by the Dibyendu Barua Chess Academy and Allsport Foundation — here, at the ICCR, on Thursday.

Grandmaster Nigel was fortunate in his game against GM Petr Kostenko of Kazakhstan as he had a clearly inferior position with black in the middle game. But when both players under severe time pressure, Kostenko fumbled and lost.

GM Surya won yet another interesting game, which arose from a Sicilian Taimanov, against Narayan Srinath. Surya won a rook for a bishop in the middle game, but Srinath had two extra pawns for the material deficit. Surya, however, played the ending perfectly to carve out a win from that position.

Untitled Xu Yinglun of China held GM Deep Sengupta to a draw in a queen’s pawn opening. Both Deep and Yinglun were content to split the point after routine exchanges in the middle game and agreed to a draw after 30 moves. 

Abhishek Kelkar, meanwhile, continued his excellent performance as he held local GM Neelotpal Das to a draw, while Himal Gussain drew with GM Abhijit Kunte.

In another upset, GM M. Shyam Sundar was held to a draw by IM elect S.Ravi Teja in 30 moves in queen’s pawn opening.