India''s Lalit Babu, Neelotpal among three in joint lead in Mumbai international chess tournament

Mumbai, Jun 24 (PTI) India's Lalit Babu and Neelotpal Das scored impressive victories to join Gharibyan Mamikon of Armenia in joint lead after the eighth round at the Mumbai International Grandmaster Chess Tournament here on Tuesday.

While Babu defeated GM Alexei Fedorov of Belarus with white pieces in 39 moves, Das got the better of IM Arsen Davtyan of Armenia.

Mamikon, meanwhile, produced a major upset, defeating tournament leader GM Aleksej Aleksandrov of Belarus with the black pieces to accumulate seven points from eight matches.

Nine players -- including GM Aleksandrov, GM Levan Pantsulaia, GM Manuel Petrosyan, GM Deepan Chakkravarthy and GM Nguyen Duc Hoa -- are right behind with 6.5 points from eight matches.

In the junior section, FM Aansh Nerurkar bounced back with a win over CM Madhvendra Sharma, while CM Madhesh Kumar was held to a draw by Advik Agrawal.

Nerurkar and Kumar were in joint lead with seven points from eight matches. Hot on their heels were CM Vyom Malhotra, Advik Agrawal and Shaunak Badole, all tied on 6.5 points. PTI PDS PDS TAP