Nihal was a cut above his opponent Reza Mahdevi of Iran as he carried out the Queen’s gambit with the white pieces and never let go of the initiative with the slightly favourable colour.

The middle game was intense but the Indian never let the command go out of sight.

In the end, the two players arrived at a minor piece endgame where Nihal had two Bishops that did the talking.

Baradiya Danehswar of Iran emerged as the sole leader on three points.

L R Srihari proved his mettle against former world junior champion Abhijeet Gupta while P Iniyan and Murali Karthikeyan can hope to be in the top group and be in top eight that will guarantee a place in the next world chess cup. PTI Corr PDS PDS PDS