Grandmaster G.N. Gopal scored two successive victories to move into the joint second spot after five rounds of the Asian chess championship at Subic Bay in the Philippines.
Gopal, with four points, will take on Filipino leader Wesley So (4.5) in Monday's sixth round. K. Sasikiran and B. Adhiban have 3.5 points each.
In the ladies' section, Kiran Manisha Mohanty lost to Chinese leader Wang Yu and was placed fourth with six others at three points.
The results (involving Indians):Open (fifth round): Abhijeet Gupta (3.5) drew with Yu Yangyi (Chn, 4); Darwin Laylo (Phi, 3) lost to G. N. Gopal (4); K. Sasikiran (3.5) bt Nguyen Ahn Dung (Vie, 2.5); Tejas Bakre (3) drew with P. Hari Krishna (3); Neelotpal Das (2.5) lost to B. Adhiban (3.5): Lou Yiping (2.5) drew with S. Kidambi (2.5); S. P. Sethuraman (3) bt Namkhai Battulga (Mgl, 2); Emmanuel Senador (Phi, 2) lost to D. Harika (3); Alcon John Datu (Phi, 1.5) drew with Padmini Rout (1.5).
Fourth round: Hari drew with Yu Ruiyan (Chn); Nguyen Huynh Minh Huy(Vie) drew with Sasikiran; Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son (Vie) drew with Tejas ; Gopal bt Ronald Dableo (Phi); Gao Rui (Chn) lost to Gupta; Yang Kaiqi (Chn) bt Sethuraman; Le Quang Liem (Vie) drew with Das; Kidambi drew with Emmanul Senador (Phi); Adhiban bt Nasib Ginting (Ina); Harika drew with Zeng Chongsheng (Chn); Padmini lost to Zhang Zhong (Chn).
Women (fifth round): Wang Yu (Chn, 4.5) bt Kiran Manisha Mohanty (3); Ding Yixin (Chn, 4) bt Tania Sachdev (2.5); Subbaraman Meenakshi (2.5) bt Nafisa Muminova (Uzb, 1.5); (fourth round): Kiran bt Hoang Thi Bao Tram (Vie); Tania bt Meenakshi.
