Sengupta holds top seed; Maghami and Lenic share lead

Continuing his fine run, Indian International Master Deep Sengupta held top seed Grandmaster Le Quang Liem of Vietnam to a draw in the 10th and penultimate round of the 8th International Open Chess Tournament here today.

New Delhi: Continuing his fine run, Indian International Master Deep Sengupta held top seed Grandmaster

Le Quang Liem of Vietnam to a draw in the 10th and penultimate round of the 8th Parsvnath International Open Chess Tournament here today. Sengupta opted Dutch Defence with black pieces against his fancied rival and secured well deserved half point after 64 moves and now share the second spot with five other GMs with eight points. Second seed Slovenian Grandmaster Lenic Luka defeated International Master Nikolay Tolstikh of Russia in the penultimate round to catch up with the overnight sole leader Grandmaster Maghami Ehsan Ghaem with eight and half points. Playing black side of Kings Indian Defence, Lenic outwitted Russian International Master in 44 moves. Meanwhile Maghami settled for another quick draw as he signed the peace treaty with Kazakh Grandmaster Pavel Kostur in just nine moves. Five foreign Grandmasters Pavel Kostur of Kazakhstan, Dmitry Kryakvin of Russia, Ziaur Rahman of Bangladesh, Martyn Kravtsiv of Ukraine and Marat Dzhumaev of Uzbekistan are giving company to Sengupta in the joint second spot. Kryakvin overcame International Master P Konguvel in the while Zia and Kravtsiv got better off P Karthikeyan and Ravi Hegde respectively. Dzhumaev joined them after defeating another Indian International Master Saptarshi Roy in the penultimate round. In other surprising results, IM Thejkumar and Arghyadip Das held Russian GMs Maxim Turov and Andrey Gutov. PTI