Mumbai Mayor's Chess: Hamal best among Nepalis

KATHMANDU, May 4: FIDE Master Manish Hamal climbed atop the standings among the Nepali players with 3.5 points in the ongoing Mumbai Mayors´ Cup International Open Chess Tournament at Gore Gaun, Mumbai, on Monday. [break]



Hamal, rated 2068, defeated Aanbes Upadhya who is rated 2321 in the fifth round. Likewise, the unbeaten record of unrated Rijendra Rajbhandari came to an end after he suffered a loss to IM Rabigopal Hakde of India who is rated 2215.



The performance of other Nepali players remained average on Monday. Prem Krishna Maharjan beat a player lower rated than him while Deepak Maharjan edged past an unrated player. Prem Krishna collected three points while Deepak accumulated 2.5 points.



Purushottam Chaulagain and Prakash Nepal lost their respective matches in the fifth round as well. Purushottam was defeated by a lower rated Indian player than him, Chhitij Shila, while Prakash lost to unrated Padhmanavan Chandra of India.



GM Alexander Arschenko (2675) of Ukrain, GM Abhijit Gupta (2570) of India and GM Aandre Deviyatkin (2566) of Russia are jointly atop the standings with five points each.

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