Pune, Jun 5 (Chess News) Top-seed Farrukh Amonatov of Tajikistan and Boris Savchenko of Russia moved into the joint lead with 6.5 points each at the end of the eighth round of the first Maharashtra International Open Grandmaster chess tournament here on Sunday.
Amonatov drew his eighth round game against Mihail Nikitenko of Belarus in just 14 moves while Savchenko scored a win over Kirill Stupak in 53 moves.
Four Indian players — Arjun Kalyan, Deep Sengupta, Karthik Venkataraman and Aditya Mittal — and Aleksej Aleksandrov of Belarus are close on the heels of the leaders with six points each.
Grandmasters Kalyan and Sengupta drew their game in 31 moves while GM Venkataraman beat Sharan Rao and Mittal signed peace with Duc Hoa Nguyen of Vietnam.
Three more rounds remain to be played in the tournament.
Important Results (8th round): Farrukh Amonatov (6.5) drew with Mihail Nikitenko (5.5); Arjun Kalyan (6) drew with Deep Sengupta (6); Boris Savchenko (6) beat Kirill Stupak (3.5); Aditya Mittal (6) drew with Duc Hoa Nguyen (4); Luka Paichadze (5.5) drew with Anuj Shrivatri (2); M R Lalith Babu (5.5) drew with L R Srihari (3), Karthik Venkataraman (6) beat Sharan Rao (2.5).
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News Source : PTI
