Half point for Sowmya against top seed Tiviakov

Pune based Woman Grandmaster Sowmya Swaminathan snatched half a point against top seed Grandmaster Sergei Tiviakov of The Netherlands in an exciting third round game in the Apollo Engineering College Commonwealth Chess Championships 2012 at Multipurpose Indoor Stadium in Chennai on Saturday.

Leading the table with 3.0 points from as many rounds are Grandmasters Ahmed Adly (Egypt), Oleksienko Mikhailo (Ukraine), Marat Dzhumaev (Uzbekistan), B Adhiban, S P Sethuraman, M R Lalith Babu, Arun Prasad and Deepan Chakkravarthy (all India) among others. Top seed Sergei Tiviakov stays half a point behind at 2.5 points.

The top board Scandinavian game saw both Sowmya and Tiviakov battling for the initiative. The unorthodox play by black kept Sowmya in the back foot, but slowly she found herself pressing for an advantage. Tiviakov gave nothing away and here precise play saw Sowmya repeating the moves and signing peace after 81 moves.

"I appeared to have a good position, but somehow could not convert it to my favor," said Sowmya after the game.

In the second board, former World Junior Champion Ahmed Adly scored the quickest win of the day as his Indian opponent Deepak Katiyar failed to see a nice intervening combination and gave up after 27 moves.

The top boards had fewer surprises, with experienced Kerala player O T Anil Kumar holding his own against local star Grandmaster M R Venkatesh, while Velammal School boy and National Under-17 champion Navalgund Niranjan held Grandmaster Alexander Fominyh of Russia to a draw.

Further down, Atul Dahale brought down International Master Oliver Dimakiling of The Philippines in a marathon game that lasted 73 moves.