Dhopade stuns Dzhumaev

International Master Swapnil Dhopade held Uzbek Grandmaster Marat Dzhumaev to a 51-move fighting draw in the sixth round of the Chennai International open chess tournament here at the Nehru Stadium on Friday.

Mikhail Mozharov initiated a lovely tactic on move 34 to win a rook for bishop and defeat C.R.G. Krishna in 82 long moves. Mozharov joined Swapnil in the lead on 5.5 points from six rounds after a win that came after four and a half hours of play. After an eventful double round, four rounds remain to be played in this Group A for 179 players.

International Master P. Karthikeyan shocked Grandmaster Nguyen Duc Hoa of Vietnam to share the third place with four overseas players on five points. He also had an excellent day scoring 1.5/2 from two Grandmasters on a single day.

In the morning session, Swapnil Dhopade picked up the central pawn on move 13 to beat Rathnakaran in 46 moves. Two Indians shocked Grandmasters: B.S. Shivananda beat Andrey Baryshpolets (Ukraine), D.B.C. Prasad beat Vladimir Lazarev (France).

In the Group B, O.T. Anilkumar and S.S. Manigandan are jointly leading with 6.5 points after seven rounds. Two rounds remain to be played in this section which concludes tomorrow.

The results (Indians unless specified, round six): Swapnil Dhopade 5.5 drew with Marat Dzhumaev (Uzb) 5; Mikhail Mozharov (Rus) 5.5 bt C.R.G. Krishna 4.5; Ivan Popov (Rus) 5 bt Sayantan Das 4; Jonathan Cruz (Peru) 5 bt Alberto David (Ita) 4; Sabino Brunello (Ita) 5 bt S.L. Narayanan 4; Prasanna Rao 4.5 drew with Cristhian Cruz (Peru) 4.5; Alexander Evdokimov (Rus) 4.5 drew with K Rathnakaran 4.5; P Karthikeyan 5 bt Nguyen Duc Hoa (Vie) 4; Eldar Gasanov (Ukr) 4.5 bt B.S. Shivananda 4.