The loss, coming with white pieces, proved costly for the Indian ace as he had been on the threshold of breaching the 2700 ElO rating barrier but will now have to start a fresh campaign for that.

Out of the top ten seeds only local star Wesley So maintained a clean slate winning his third game in a row at the expense of compatriot Oliver Barabosa.

As the events unfolded, Megaranto, So and young Chinese Yu Yangyi, who defeated S P Sethuraman, emerged as the new joint leaders with a perfect score with six rounds still to come in the strongest Asian tournament.

Fifth seed P Harikrishna scored his second win in a row beating Vietnamese Anh Duong. 2008 World junior champion Abhijeet Gupta gave a positional lesson to IM Goh Weiming of Singapore to also reach two points from three games. D Harika got the better of Chinese Li Hanbin. In the women’s championship, IM Tania Sachdev conceded a draw to Lkhamsuren Uuganbayar of Mongolia. Kiran Manisha Mohanty continued with her fine run and outsmarted local hopeful Beverly Mendoza.

Important results (Open, round 3, Indians unless stated):
Krishnan Sasikiran (2) lt to Susanto Megaranto (Ina, 3); Wesley So (Phi, 3) bt Oliver Barbosa (Phi, 2); S P Sethuraman (2) lt to Yu Yangyi (Chn, 3); Yu Ruiyuan (Chn, 2.5) drew Ding Liren (Chn, 2.5); Ni Hua (2.5) bt Allan Macala (Phi, 3); Li Chao (Chn, 2.5) bt Richard Bitoon (Phi, 1.5); Tejas Bakre (2) drew G N Gopal (2); Neelotpal Das (2) drew John Paul Gomez (Phi, 2); The Anh Duong (Vie, 1) lt to P Harikrishna (2); Abhijeet Gupta (2) bt Goh Weiming (Sin, 1); Rolando Nolte (Phi, 1.5) drew S Kidambi (1.5); Emmanuel Senador (Phi, 1.5) drew B Adhiban (1.5); Ronald Dableo (Phi, 2) bt Padmini Rout (1); Li Hanbin (Chn, 0.5) lt to D Jarika (1.5).

Women (round 3): Irine Sukander Kharisma (Ina, 2) lt to Wang Yu A (Chn, 3); Ju Wenjun (Chn, 2) drew Ding Yixin (Chn, 2.5); Pham Le Thao Nguyen (Vie, 2) drew Wang Jue (Chn, 2); Tan Zhongyi (Chn, 2) bt Ghazal Hakimifrad (Iri, 1); Uuganbayar Lkhamsuren (Mgl, 1.5) drew Tania Sachdev (1.5); Atousa Pourkashiyan (Iri, 2) bt Xue Huahua (Chn, 1); Kiran Manisha Mohanty (2) bt Beverly Mendoza (Phi, 1).