New Delhi, Mar 28 (Sports News) Defending champion Abhijeet Gupta defeated Iran's Poormosavi Seyed Kian in the penultimate round to take a joint lead in the 19th Delhi International open chess tournament here on Monday.

With his sixth victory in a row following a disastrous start, Gupta reached 7.5 points to join overnight leaders Arjun Erigaisi, D Gukesh and Harsha Bharthakoti, while S P Sethuraman accounted for Pavel Ponkratov of Russia to match these four on points.

Poormosavi Seyed Kian, meanwhile, became the first player in the tournament to score an International Master norm. The other norm aspirant is Neelash Saha who needs a victory in the final round to make a Grandmaster norm.

At the top of the table, Erigaisi Arjun played out an effortless draw as black against Gukesh out of a Sicilian Najdorf, where the pieces changed hands right from the early middle game. The players soon reached an endgame where neither side had chances.

Bharthakoti drew with Saha, who played white, while Sethuraman was at his best in outwitting Ponkratov.

For Gupta, it was a good day in the office. The champion of the last edition in 2020 won a pawn in the Bishop and pawns endgame. The technicalities were never a problem and Gupta wrapped the issue in 45 moves.

Important Results Round 9 (Indians otherwise stated) :- D Gukesh (7.5) drew with Erigaisi Arjun (7.5); Neelash Saha (7) drew with Harsha Bharathakoti (7.5); Poormosavi Seyed Kian of Iran (6.5) lost to Abhijeet Gupta (7.5); Pavel Ponkratov of Russia (6) lost to S P Sethuraman (7.5); M R Lalith Babu (7) beat Abdisalimov Abdimalik of Uzbekistan (6); N R Visakh (6) lost to Himal Gusain (7); P Iniyan (6.5) drew with Viani Antonio Dcunha (6.5); Saptarshi Roy (6) lost to Karthik Venkataraman (7); Mirzoev Azer of Azerbaijan (6.5) drew with Divya Deshmukh (6.5); P Karthikeyan (6) lost to Tahbaz Arash of Iran (7); Nigmatov Ortik of Uzebkistan (7) beat Borgaonkar Akshay (6); Rohith Krishna S (6.5) drew with N Vignesh (6.5); Aradhya Garg (6.5) drew with Deepan Chakkravarthy (6) Delgado Ramirez Neuris of Praguay (6.5) beat Liyanage Ranindu Dilshan of Sri Lanka (5.5) Utsab Chatterjee (6.5) beat Mosadeghpour Masoud of Iran (5.5). 

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News Source : PTI