Four wins with white
The third round of the Masters section in Chennai produced four decisive results, with all four wins going to the players who had the white pieces. Vincent Keymer maintained his perfect start to the tournament, scoring his third consecutive victory to remain the sole leader. Top seed Arjun Erigaisi also won, keeping within a half point of the leader on 2½/3.
Already at this early stage, there is a full-point gap between Arjun in second place and the rest of the field. The other two wins of the day were achieved by Vidit Gujrathi and Awonder Liang, who both collected their first full points of the event, while the only draw was between Anish Giri and Pranav Venkatesh.
Round 3 results
The playing hall during the third round
Keymer’s victory came against Karthikeyan Murali in a Sicilian Defence. Early on, the German found the most testing continuation in the position with 12.h4, a move that immediately posed practical problems.
Karthikeyan responded with 12…Be7, an inaccuracy compared to the stronger 12…Bd6. After 13.h5 h6 14.Qg3, Black was already forced to make the major concession 14…Kf8, which left his rook effectively stuck on the kingside.
While the position was not yet decisive, Keymer was fully in control, maintaining the pressure and restricting counterplay. By the time he played 20.b3, Black had no effective plan on the queenside, while White still had options to advance on the opposite flank. Karthikeyan’s attempt to break free with 20…g5 only created further weaknesses around his king.
White’s initiative steadily grew until the game ended with the attractive 28.Ne6+
There followed 28…Rxe6+ 29.Qxe6 Nc3+ 30.Ka1 and Keymer is not only material up but is threatening mate on f7. Black resigned.
Karthikeyan Murali
Arjun Erigaisi’s win over Ray Robson was also convincing but was shaped by the severe time pressure that has become characteristic of the American’s games. Robson was already clearly behind on the clock early in the game and, by move 24, had only 7 minutes remaining compared to Arjun’s 37.
On the board, White held a clear positional advantage, enjoying greater space on the kingside and keeping all weaknesses under control. Robson’s 24…a5 attempted to untangle his position but was inaccurate, as 25.Na4 immediately targeted the b6-pawn.
If 25…Rb8, White would have continued with 26.b5, gaining even more space, so Robson chose 25…axb4 26.Bxb6 Qb8 27.axb4 Nxb4 (diagram below) 28.Bxd8 Rxd8, leaving White an exchange ahead.
Despite having the bishop pair, Black lacked sufficient counterplay to offset the material deficit. Arjun played patiently, improving his position step by step until securing his second victory of the event on move 46.
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Arjun Erigaisi
Vidit Gujrathi’s win over Nihal Sarin came from a tense, double-edged battle in which both players had only a little over a minute left by the late middlegame. Nihal, who had lost to Keymer in round one and drawn with Giri in round two, blundered under the time pressure, allowing Vidit to seize the initiative and convert.
The day’s other decisive game in the Masters saw Awonder Liang beat Jorden van Foreest in just 34 moves. Van Foreest’s choice of knight capture on move 21 turned out to be the game’s decisive mistake in a queenless setup. Liang quickly consolidated his advantage, taking full control of the position and winning efficiently
Standings after round 3
All games
Challengers: Pranesh and Abhimanyu share the lead
In the Challengers section, three games ended decisively. Two of the players who began the day in shared first place, Abhimanyu Puranik and M Pranesh, both won to remain at the top of the standings with 2½ points.
Leon Luke Mendonca also won, bouncing back from his round-two loss by defeating Vaishali Rameshbabu, and now shares third place with Diptayan Ghosh on 2 points.
Round 3 results
Abhimanyu Puranik defeated Harshavardhan G B
Abhimanyu, playing white against Harshavardhan G B, reached a favourable position out of an English Opening and obtained a passed b-pawn. His 31.Qxd6 was the most direct way to press the advantage, even at the cost of the exchange – 31…Qxe1 “wastes” a tempo compared to the priority of stopping the pawn.
The sequence 32.b7 e3 33.Bxe3 Qb1 34.Qb6 Qxb6 35.Bxb6 e4 36.Bc7 ensured the two bishops would easily support the passer’s promotion.
Harshavardhan tried counterplay against the f2-pawn, but Abhimanyu had foreseen this and simplified into a won endgame to force resignation.
