The Israeli duo of Tamir Nabaty and Alon Greenfeld led the field with eight points each at the end of the ninth round of the India Cements Chennai International chess tournament.
A pack of three, including the top seed Alexander Areshchenko, followed half a point behind.
As the tournament heads towards conclusion, decisive results were the order of the day as just two of the top 20 boards did not produce a win.
Areshchenko wins
Playing black, Areshchenko accounted for Ziaur Rahman (6.5) in one of the early wins of the day.
The opening transposed itself into the semi-Slav defence and Areshchenko's pieces were the better off at the end of the first set of moves, being more mobile and positioned so as to target white's weaker queen side.
The highlight of the middle game was the Ukrainian's willingness to push his pawns high up the board, providing a platform for his minor pieces in white's half while simultaneously keeping Rahman's pieces pegged to the back ranks.
The match lasted 49 moves, but was over as a contest as soon as black's knight broke through on white's king side, a possibility Rahman was not alive to.
Nabaty beats Ni
On the leader board, the undefeated Tamir Nabaty (8.0), playing white, handed Chinese Super GM Ni Hua (7.0) his first defeat of the tournament in 41 moves of the French defence.
Nabaty's pieces congregated on Hua's king side, and white acted before black's corresponding accumulation of pieces on the other side of the board could launch an offensive.
Hua volunteered to go an exchange down, but it was not enough to stop white's attack.
G.V. Sai Krishna, 14, inched closer to a 10-game IM norm after upsetting GM Levon Babujian in 71 moves of the Morphy's defence of the Ruy Lopez. Sai Krishna, playing white, gave up his rook for a minor piece and two pawns, injecting the game with tempo.
White's promotion of the subsequently unhindered c pawn pretty much killed his higher ranked opponent off and Babujian resigned soon after.
B. Adhiban (7), S. Kidambi (7), S.P. Sethuraman (6.5), Deepan Chakkravarthy (6.5) and M.S. Thej Kumar (7) also notched regulation wins.
Mohammad Nubairshah Shaikh (6.5) and Prantik Roy (6) achieved their International Master norms today, with a win and a draw respectively.
Important results:
Round 9: Tamir Nabaty (Isr, 8.0) bt Ni Hua (Chi, 7.0), Evgeny Postny (Isr, 7.0) lost to Alon Greenfeld (Isr, 8.0), Ziaur Rahman (Ban, 6.5) lost to Alexander Areshchenko (Ukr, 7.5), Sahaj Grover (6.5) lost to Kravtsiv Martyn (Ukr, 7.5), Mikhailo Oleksienko (Ukr, 7.5) bt Henrik Danielsen (Isl, 6.5), M. Shyam Sundar (6.5) drew with Abhijeet Gupta (6.5).
Yaroslav Zherebukh (Ukr, 7.0) bt G.A. Stany (6.0), Yang Kaiqi (Chi, 6.0) lost to B. Adhiban (7.0), P. Shyam Nikil (7.0) bt R.R. Laxman (6.0), M.S. Thej Kumar (7.0) bt Abu Sufian Shakil (Ban, 6.0).
S. Vijayalakshmi (6.0) lost to R.A. Pradeep Kumar (7.0), B.S. Shivananda (6.0) lost to Sundararajan Kidambi (7.0), Somak Palit (5.5) lost to S.P. Sethuraman (6.5), J. Deepan Chakkravarthy (6.5) bt Saurav Khherdekar (5.5), Neelotpal Das (5.5) lost to Arjun Tiwari (6.5).
Board pairing for round 10: Alon Greenfeld vs.Tamir Nabaty, Martyn Kravtsiv vs.Mikhailo Oleksienko, Alexander Areshchenko vs. M.S. Thejkumar, Ni Hua vs.Shyam Nikil, B. Adhiban vs.Yuriy Kuzubov.
Standings (after round 9):
1. Tamir Nabaty (Isr, 8.0), Alon Greenfeld (Isr, 8.0), 3. Alexander Areshchenko (Ukr, 7.5), Mikhailo Oleksienko (Ukr, 7.5), Martyn Kravtsiv (Ukr, 7.5), 6 to 10. Evgeny Postny (Isr, 7.0), Yuriy Kuzubov (Ukr, 7.0), Yaroslav Zherebukh (Ukr, 7.0), Ni Hua (Chi, 7.0), B.Adhiban (7.0).
