Eight share lead, double blow for Neelotpal Das

New Delhi, Jan 17 (UNI) Former National champion and Grandmaster Abhijit Kunte continued with his winning ways and defeated talented youngster S P Sethuraman to share the lead with seven others after the fourth round of the fifth Parsvnath International Chess tournament here today.

Meanwhile, in a major upset of the day, V Haribalu outwitted Grandmaster Neelotpal Das from a difficult situation. It turned out to be a double blow for Das who had also lost his previous round game. The Kolkata GM is now tottering at just two points.

Atop the table, as many as eight players, including five Grandmasters came out unscathed in the first four rounds to share the lead with a cent per cent score. The are Abhijeet Gupta, Abhijit Kunte, S Arun Prasad, Deepan Chakravarthy, Arghyadip Das, Dibyendu Barua and Uzbek GMs Safin Shukhrat and Saidali Iuldachev respectively.

Top seed Alexey Dreev of Russia joint second with 17 others with six rounds still to come in the Re 8.75 Lakh prize money tournament.

UNI