New Delhi: With one round remaining, the tenth edition of Parsvnath International Open Grandmasters Chess Tournament heading for a close finish as at the end of penultimate round matches at Ludlow Castle Sports Complex on Sunday, Filipino Grandmasters Oliver Barbosa and John Paul Gomez leading the point table with eight and half points after registering emphatic victories over Grandmasters Mark Paragua and Deepan Chakkravarthy in the tenth round. Indian International Masters Lalith Babu M R, K Rathnakaran and Shyam Nikil along with untitled Chinese player Ma Qun are closely following the leaders with a drift of half point in this Rs. 15 lakh prize money tournament.
In the tenth round encounters, playing with white pieces in Grunfeld defence, Barbosa not given any chances to his countrymen rival to seal the match in 33 moves while displaying a solid tactical game in Kings Indian defence opening, Gomez overcame his Indian rival in 42 moves. Rathnakaran outwitted Kazakh International Master Kiril Kuderinov while Ma Qun shocked fifth seed Russian Grandmaster Andrei Deviatkin to occupy the joint second spot with Lalith Babu and Shyam Nikil, who overcame their Indian International Master rivals Vishnu Prasanna and S Nitin respectively in the tenth round.
Meanwhile Delhi youngster Hemant Sharma brought cheers to the home crowd by making his maiden International Master norm after signing the peace treaty with International Master Ashwin Jayaram. In surprising results of the day, Kerala youngster Narayanan S L stunned Grandmaster Henrik Danielsen of Iceland while International Master Himanshu Sharma suffered shock defeat by the hands of Tamilnadu based R A Pradeep Kumar.
Barbosa takes on Shyam Nikil while Gomez paired with Ma Qun in the eleventh and final round, which will be held at Monday morning.
Important Results (Indians otherwise stated) :-
Round-10 :- GM Oliver Barbosa of Philippines (8.5) beat GM Mark Paragua of Philippines (7.5); GM Gomez John Paul of Philippines (8.5) beat GM Deepan Chakkravarthy (7); GM Andrei Deviatkin of Russia (7) lost to Ma Qun of China (8); GM Evgeny Gleizerov of Russia (7.5) drew with IM Vaibhav Suri (7.5); IM Kiril Kuderinov of Kazakhstan (7) lost to IM Rathnakaran K (8); IM Lalith Babu M R (8) beat IM Vishnu Prasanna (7); IM Nitin S (7) lost to IM Shyam Nikil (8); GM Sandipan Chanda (7) drew with GM Neelotpal Das (7); IM Swapnil Dhopade (6.5) lost to GM Martyn Kravtsiv of Ukraine (7.5); IM Debashis Das (7) drew with GM Mikhailo Oleksienko of Ukraine (7); GM Abhijit Kunte (7.5) beat IM Varugeese Koshy (6.5); IM Vidit Santosh Gujrathi (7.5) beat IM Saptarshi Roy (6.5); Hemant Sharma (7) drew with IM Ashwin Jayaram (6.5); GM Mikhail Ulibin of Russia (7) beat IM Praveen Kumar C (6); GM Henrik Danielsen of Iceland (6) lost to Narayanan S L (7); IM Thejkumar MS (7) beat Saravana Krishnan P (6); GM Laxman R R (7) beat Mu Ke of China (6); IM Anwesh Upadhyaya (6.5) drew with FM Prasenjit Datta (6.5); IM Himanshu Sharma (6) lost to Pradeep Kumar R A (7); IM Karthikeyan P (7) beat Shreyans K Shah (6); Anurag Mhamal (6) lost to Zeng Chongsheng of China (7); FM Shardul Gagare (6) lost to IM Somak Palit (7); IM R Siddharth (7) beat CM Prince Bajaj (6); Karthikeyan Murali (6.5) drew with IM Shivananda B S (6.5); IM Hegde Ravi Gopal (6.5) drew with FM Diptayan Ghosh (6.5); IM Murali Krishnan B T (6.5) drew with Sameer Kathmale (6.5); Surendran N (6.5) drew with IM Ramnath Bhuvanesh (6.5); Visakh N R (6) lost to Abhishek Das (7); IM Konguvel P (7) beat Mugil Jayavel (6); GM Aleksej Aleksandrov (6.5) beat FM Shrestha Sujendra Prasad of Nepal (6).
