Gillani holds Neelotpal in Asian Zone 3.2 Chess

New Delhi: Grandmaster Neelotpal Das suffered a minor set back to his world cup qualification dreams as drew with lower rated Mohammed Tanuveer Gillani of Pakistan in the third round of the Asian Zone 3.2 Chess Championship here today. In women`s section, national champion Kruttika Nadig had the same fate against young Sultana Sharmin Shrin of Bangladesh in their second round encounter. Meanwhile, the poor form of Bangladeshi GM Reefat Bin-Sattar is continuing as he suffered his third straight loss as he went down to second seed GM Deepan Chakkravarthy. Earlier in the second round, he was beaten by Neelotpal Das. In another third round matches, International Master Rathanakaran beat young Ahmed Ashraf of Maldives while another Indian IM in the fray Sriram Jha and top seed Bangladeshi GM Ziaur Rahman overcame Kesav Malla of Bhutan and Hapuarachchi HLM of Sri Lanka without much struggle. Last minute entrant into the championship veteran, Grandmaster Pravin Thipsay set the record straight as he beat Amir Karim of Pakistan. In the women`s section, playing white side of Sicilian Defence, Kruttika Nadig tried hard for a win against lowly rated Sultana Sharmin but couldn`t materialise the same and signed the peace treaty in 67 moves. In another second round match, Women Grandmasters Nisha Mohota and Swathi Ghate split the points after 48 moves while local hope and top seed Tania Sachdev beat Monalisa Khamboo of Nepal in just 29 moves. Bureau Report