Nisha Mohota at the Gorky Sadan on Tuesday. Picture by Santosh Ghosh

Calcutta: WGM Nisha Mohota of LIC held Iranian GM Eshan Ghaem Maghami in the second round of the International Open chess at the Alekhine Chess Club on Tuesday. Nisha, rated nearly 300 Elo points below Maghami, held her own in the Nimzo Indian defence and drew after a prolonged struggle. On Monday, Nisha had drawn against GM Ziaur Rahaman of Bangladesh.

Meanwhile, four players ? Dao Thien Hai, Surya Sekhar Ganguly, Oleg Romanishin and Alexander Fominyh shared the lead with two points each after second round.

On top board, Dao Thien Hai of Vietnam disposed of the Indian GM Tejas Bakre with black in 36 moves in a Sicilian defence.

City-based GM Surya of Indian Oil was in his elements as he once again played a technically perfect game to outwit compatriot Saptarshi Roy in a queen?s pawn game. ?I had anticipated Saptarshi?s opening and had prepared a novelty on the 12th move, which I believe gave me a lasting advantage.? Surya told The Telgraph after the game.

On the second board, Grandmasters Nguyen Anh Dung and Niaz Murshed preferred to play safe and drew after a mere 17 moves. Bengal?s best hope for a GM norm, IM Neelotpal Das of ONGC, held GM Abhijit Kunte of Indian Oil with the black pieces in 18 moves. Neelotpal opted for the Slav defence in reply to Abhijit?s Queen?s pawn opening.

GM Sandipan Chanda, of ONGC, tried to steer the game along less-traversed lines in a Queen?s Gambit Declined but it failed to pay dividends. Sandipan spurned the draw offer of Dinesh Sharma on the 13th move but himself offered to split points when neither side could make any headway.

Top seed Aleksej Alexandrov of Belarus had little difficulty in disposing off Kh. Aminul Islam of Bangladesh in 25 moves in a Nimzo Indian defence even as city-beased GM Dibyendu Barua of Tata Steel disposed off Mahtabuddin Ahmed of Bangladesh in a Reti opening.

GM-norm aspirant D.V. Prasad of Indian Oil, who held the top seed on Monday, won comfortably against the youngest player on the meet Satyajit Kundu.

Asia?s youngest GM Timur Gareev of Uzbekistan outwitted Arman Monir of Bangladesh with ease in a Grunfeld defence. IM Neeraj K. Mishra was upset by lowly-rated K. Ramu with black pieces in the Samisch variation of the King?s Indian defence.

Eleven-year-old Bitan Banerjee of GNCA upset Fide Master Abu Sufian Shakil of Bangladesh in a marathon game which arose from the Najdorf Sicilian.

Two rounds will be played on Wednesday ? the third round from 9 am, while the fourth from 4 p.m.

RESULTS

Tejas Bakre (1) lost to Thien Hai Dao (2); Anh Dung Nguyen (1.5) drew Niaz Murshed (1.5); Saptarshi Roy (1) lost to Surya Sekhar Ganguly (2); Abhijit Kunte (1.5) drew Neelotpal Das (1.5); Sandipan Chatterjee (1) lost to Oleg M. Romanishin (2); Sandipan Chanda (1.5) drew Dinesh K. Sharma (1.5); Alexander Fominyh (2) bt Rahul Sangma (1); Kh. Aminul Islam (0.5) lost to Aleksandrov Aleksej (1.5); Ni Hua (1.5) bt Javed Mohammad (0.5); Nisha Mohota (1) drew Eshan Ghaem Maghami (1); Abhishek Das, (0.5) lost to Ziaur Rahman (1.5); Mahtabuddin Ahmed (0.5) lost to Dibyendu Barua (1.5); Timur Gareev (1.5) bt Arman Monir (0.5); Reefat Bin-Sattar (1.5) bt Devraz Chatterjee (0.5); Enamul Hossain (1.5) beat Soumya Thakurta (0.5); Devaki V Prasad (1.5) bt Satyajit Kundu (0.5); Shayesteh Ghader Pour (1) drew Rahul Shetty (1); Al-Rakib Abdulla (1) bt K. Visweswaran (0); Vinoth Kumar (0) lost to R.R. Laxman (1); Neeraj K Mishra (0) lost to K. Ramu (1); Saheli Nath (0.5) drew R. Balasubramaniun (0.5); Somak Palit (1) bt Souvik Chakraborty (0); Abhratanu Dutta (0) lost to Arindam Mukherjee (1); Sakil Abu Sufian(0) lost to Bitan Banerjee (1).