One wondered if it was a bout of bad luck or lack of preparations after Grandmaster Koneru Humpy suffered yet another loss at the Commonwealth Chess Championship.The high-profile player’s lowly rival from Pune, Prathamesh Mokal (19), was quick to point out Humpy’s nemesis. ‘’She has been playing Sicilian opening recently and could not really pick up since the beginning.’’ This was Prathmesh’s second consecutive victory over Humpy after his outstanding show against her in at Calicut GMs Tournament. Yesterday, the GM was beaten by veteran IM Ravi Hegde in a third round game.IM Neelotpal Das gave his supporters a reason to celebrate when he outwitted out-of-form sixth seed GM Pentlya Harikrishna in a Slav defence. Das is now in company with a pack of joint-leaders with 3.5 points to his credit. Another GM to fall was 11th seed Bangladeshi Zia-ur Rehman.
