Abhijeet seizes sole lead with win over Gharibyan

New Delhi, Jun 11 (PTI) In a major shake-up, Indian Grandmaster Abhijeet Gupta emerged as the sole leader at the Delhi International Open chess tournament following a commanding victory over GM Mamikon Gharibyan of Armenia.

The result puts the Indian GM in pole position with 6.5 points, heading into the final stretch of the tournament.

The top-board clash between GM S L Narayanan and GM Boris Savchenko, both tied at the top before the round, ended in a balanced draw, pushing both to six points. They are now part of a tightly packed chasing group, joined by several others who secured key wins on Wednesday.

Round 7 also saw several critical results that tightened the race at the top. GM Mihail Nikitenko defeated GM Alexei Fedorov to move to six points, while GM Vitaly Sivuk secured a strong win over Alekhya Mukhopadhyay, also climbing to six.

GM Diptayan Ghosh joined the leading pack after overcoming GM Aleksej Aleksandrov.

Meanwhile, GM Luka Paichadze and GM Manuel Petrosyan played out a draw to stay in contention with 5.5 points each, as did GM Aditya S Samant and IM Semetey Tologontegin, who also shared the spoils to reach 5.5.

Also joining the 6-point club was IM Neelash Saha, who continued his excellent run with a win over Bivor Adak, and IM Aronyak Ghosh, who defeated GM Nguyen Duc Hoa in a sharp battle.

With just three rounds remaining, the standings remain extremely tight, with eight players now trailing Abhijeet Gupta by just half a point. PTI AT SSC SSC