Grandmaster Marat Dzhumaev of Uzbekistan became the sole leader with 4.5 points at the end of the fifth round of the SREI International Grandmasters Open chess tournament here on Monday.
Dzhumaev, who won the Rose Valley Open international chess tournament here last year, continued to show good form in picking up his fourth win as the 10-round Swiss league tournament reached the half-way mark. Taking on GM Valeriy Neverov of Ukraine, who played white, Dzhumaev built up a good defensive stand.
Neverov sacrificed a bishop against Dzhumaev to break open the latter’s kingside. But Dzhumaev defended with precision to withstand the attack and went on to win the game in 43 moves.
IM Swayams Mishra of India stole the show as he beat American GM Roset Ziatdinov in just 28 moves in a King’s Indian defence. IM Anurag Mhamal upset veteran GM Niaz Murshed of Bangladesh in another good performance.
National sub-junior champion IM Murali Karthikeyan held Ukrainian GM Vladislav Borovikov in a long battle.
Important results (all Indians unless specified):
Fifth round: Ivan Popov (Rus) 4 drew with Mikhail Mozharov (Rus) 4; Jacek Stopa (Pol) 4 drew with Samvel Ter-Sahakyan (Arm) 4; Valeriy Neverov (Ukr) 3.5 lost to Marat Dzhumaev (Uzb) 4.5; Neelotpal Das 3.5 drew with Surya Sekhar Ganguly 3.5; Vladislav Borovikov (Ukr) 3.5 drew with Murali Karthikeyan 3.5; Tornike Sanikidze (Geo) 4 bt R.R. Laxman 3; Siddharth Ravichandran 3 lost to Merab Gagunashvilli (Geo) 4; Hovik Hayrapetyan (Arm) 3.5 drew with Levon Babujian (Arm) 3.5; Niaz Murshed (Ban) 3 lost to Anurag Mhamal 4; Bhuvanesh R. Ramnath 2.5 lost to Levan Pantsulaia (Geo) 3.5; Deep Sengupta 3.5 bt Tigran S. Petrosyan (Arm) 2.5; Prasanna Raghuram Rao 3 drew with Azer Mirzoev (Aze) 3; Drazic Sinisa (Srb) 3.5 bt Rahul Sangma 2.5; Swayams Mishra 3.5 bt Raset Ziatdinov 2.5.
