The fourth round of the DDL/Topco-sponsored Mashramani chess tournament could not be completed yesterday because of time constraints.

However, at the end of the first three rounds, two-time national senior champion, Kriskal Persaud, stands in front of the pack with three wins out of three.

In one of the most hotly-contested games last evening at the YMCA Thomas Lands venue, Guyana Chess Federation (GCF) president, Errol Tiwari and David Khan, played to an exciting draw to end up joint second on 2.5 points each.

The game, which occupied over one and a half hours, saw Tiwari with a rook to Khan’s superior pawn chain.

Tiwari was forced to settle for a draw to avoid Khan queening one of the connected passed pawns.

The 22-player field saw some seven players tied on two points each with 2008 junior champion Taffin Khan among the lot which also includes Irshad Mohamed, Learie Webster, Shiv Nandalall, Kenrick Braithwaite, Alex Joseph and Omar Shariff.

In the junior category Devendra Singh was all by himself on three points out of three games. He is closely followed by Clive Bender 2.5, Sham Khan and Sheriffa Ali on two points each.

Six other players have tallies ranging from 1.5 points to 0.

According to Tournament Director Irshad Mohamed, a decision has not yet been as to when to the fourth round will be played.

The final three rounds are set for March 1, at the same venue and play starts at 10am.