Yu Ruiyuan of China leads the table with 8.5 points after the tenth and penultimate round of the SDAT – RMK 4th Chennai Open 2012 International Grandmaster Chess Tournament, at Multipurpose Indoor Stadium, Periamet, Chennai here today. Sharing the second spot with 8.0 points are top seed Aleksandrov Aleksej (Belarus), defending champion Kravtsiv Martyn (Ukraine), Akshayraj Kore (India) and Marat Dzhumaev (Uzbekistan) respectively.
The top board game between Indian International Master Akshayraj Kore and Grandmaster Aleksandrov Aleksej (Belarus) turned out to be an interesting fare. The Queens Gambit game saw both the players exchanging major pieces within the first twenty moves. Well into a triple minor piece ending, Akshayraj thwarted all of Aleksandrov tricks and draw was agreed after 36 moves.
In the upsets of the day, Indian players hogged the limelight with Senthilvel Nitin and Vishnu Prasanna scoring over Grandmasters Bitoon Richard (Philippines) and Neelotpal Das (India) respectively. The lone achiever of the day turned out to be Ma Qun of China who made his International Master Norm.
The all important final round is scheduled for tomorrow. LIVE webcast of the games can be viewed at http://livechess.chessdom.com/site/
GM Oliver Barbosa (Philippines)
International Master Akshayraj Kore (India)
