Online Chess Championships: Unseeded Indian Mehar upsets 7th seeded to regain top spot

Unseeded Indian International Master (IM) Mehar Chinna Reddy pulled off a big surprise when he defeated seventh-seeded Grandmaster Gregorz Nasuta of Poland on day five of the world's first online classical chess championship on Friday. With this win, Reddy regained the lead in the 10-day meet.

With four wins and a draw Reddy garnered 4.5 points and became the only Indian master to share the lead with seven others at the halfway mark. Reddy initially accepted all the sacrifices offered by his higher-ranked opponent before placing is pawns and pieces perfectly to score a massive upset.

The day saw India's Reddy, second-seeded GM Adly Ahmed from Egypt, Espinoza Willyam of Peru and Sattarov Bobir of Uzbekistan record victories in contrasting fashion. Now the eight will share top position.

Former world junior champion, Adly Ahmed posted a fantastic victory over FM Gleb Dudin of Russia in the Queen's Gambit Declined opening in 55 moves.

Unseeded Indian youngsters VS Raahul and FM Mahitosh Dey too continued their impressive run after they forced higher ranked IM Christopher Yu and Pablo Salinas Herrera to drew their respective boards and share the second position with four points.

In group B, Nagpur's Aarit Thakur posted a win over higher-rated Jamaican player Grant Chevaughn. The nine-year-old defended well and took 74 moves to score an upset win over the Queen Pawn opening opted by the 1544 Elo Jamaican. In the sixth round, Aarit will face 1689 Elo Mcrobert Michael of Scotland.

Also read: Anand, Gujrathi, Humpy in strong Indian team for Online Nations Cup