Swapnil Dhopade in joint lead at Chennai Grandmaster Chess

Chennai: GM norm holder Swapnil Dhopade shared the lead with GM Mozharov Mikhail of Russia with 5.5 points after the sixth round of the 7th Chennai International Open Grandmaster Chess Tournament at Nehru Stadium here on Friday.

Indian Railways star Swapnil held GM Marat Dzhumaev (Uzbekistan) to a hard fought 51-move draw. Russian GM Mikhail Mozharov (5.5) defeated Indian norm prospect CRG Krishna to join Swapnil in the lead.

Sharing the second spot with 5.0 points were GM Ivan Popov (Russia), GM Brunello Sabino (Ita), IM Cruz Jonathan (Peru), IM Karthikeyan P (India) among others. In-form International Master Karthikeyan P defeated Grandmaster Nguyen Duc Hoa (Vietnam) in a Sicilian game that lasted 36 moves. The crucial win took Karthikeyan (5.0) to the second spot right behind the leaders.

Earlier, top seed Grandmaster Ivan Popov of Russia shed half a point in the morning round, as national junior champion SL Narayanan held him to a draw in 39 moves.

CRG Krishna enhanced his norm chances scoring over IM Van Huy Nguyen (Vietnam) in 37 moves. International Master Shivananda B S brought down GM Andrey Baryshpolets (Ukraine) in tactical French game that lasted 31 moves.

Category A: Main Results Round 6 (Indians unless specified): Swapnil S Dhopade (5.5) drew with Dzhumaev Marat (Uzb) 5, Mozharov Mikhail (Rus) 5.5 bt CRG Krishna (4.5), Popov Ivan (Rus) 5 bt Das Sayantan (4), Cruz Jonathan (Per) 5 bt David Alberto (Ita) 4, Brunello Sabino (Ita) 5 bt SL Narayanan (4), Prasanna Raghuram Rao (4.5) drew with Cruz Cristhian (Per) 4.5, Evdokimov Alexander A (Rus) 4.5 drew with Rathnakaran K (4.5), Karthikeyan P (5) bt Nguyen Duc Hoa (Vie) 4, Gasanov Eldar (Ukr) 4.5 bt Shivananda B S (4), Neverov Valeriy (Ukr) 3.5 - Navin Kanna T U (3.5), Van Huy Nguyen (Vie) 4 drew with Kelkar Abhishek (4).