Four share lead in Mayor`s Chess

Mumbai: Four overseas Grand Masters jointly led the field with 5.5 points at the end of the sixth round of

the Mumbai Mayor`s Cup International Open Chess Tournament at the Goregaon Sports Club on Monday. Anton Kovalyov (with ELO rating 2615), Dmitry Kokarev (2612), Aleksandrov Aleksej (2604) and Dmitry Bocharov (2592) were in the lead bunch in the Rs 15 lakh prize money event conducted by the Venus Chess Academy. Reigning Commonwealth Champion R R Laxman (2476) suffered a defeat at the hands of GM Evgeny Vorobiov (2612) of Russia in 33 moves. In another match top seeded GM Alexey Dreev of Russia drew against Deepan Chakkravarthy. Mumbai collegian Aditya Udeshi continued his march towards an IM title by drawing his game against GM Hera Imre Jr (ELO 2558). Playing with white pieces Aditya tried his best to win the game with the strength of a passed pawn on the Rook file. But his experienced rival was able to defend well to draw the game. Karnataka`s D Yashas, who is also in the hunt for an IM title, drew his game against IM Roy Chowdhury Saptarshi while Mumbai`s FM Pankanj Joshi and GM Ismagambetov Anuar also shared points. GM Alon Greenfield crushed IM B T Muralikrishan in just 27 moves. The former won a full knight on the 26th move in a game of Sicilian defense. Murali Krishan resigned on the next move. On another board GM Aleksandr Fier defeated IM Thej Kumar. PTI