Five in lead after Round 6; Aansh, Madhesh lead juniors

Mumbai, Jun 22 (PTI) Overnight leaders, Indian Grandmaster M Lalit Babu and Armenia's Arsen Davtyan, ended their match in a draw, leaving the door open for others to climb into lead after round six of Aurionpro International Grandmaster and Junior Chess tournament here on Sunday.

After six rounds, five players are tied at 5.5/6, setting up a thrilling race to the finish.

In one of the biggest upsets of the tournament, International Master Nayaka Buddhidharma of Indonesia held top seed GM Levan Pantsulaia of Georgia to a well-earned draw.

In other matches, Armenian GM Manuel Petrosyan won a fine game with the white pieces against Alexander Slizhevsky of Russia, while GM Aleksej Aleksandrov of Belarus also made a statement by defeating Georgian GM Luka Paichadze in convincing fashion.

In the Under-13 section, Aansh Nandan Nerurkar and Madhesh Kumar maintained their unbeaten records after a hard-fought draw on the top board. They continue to share the lead with 5.5/6 points apiece. PTI AH UNG