Ziaur Rahman of Bangladesh and Oliver Barbosa of Philippines joined Indians Abhijit Kunte and Vidit Santosh Gujrathi in the lead with 5.5 points, after round seven in the 6th Kolkata Open (19th International Open Grandmasters Tournament) here Monday.
Three more rounds remain to be played.
Kunte opted for this third consecutive draw of the tournament, against former world under 14 champion Vidit in a Catalan opening. After exchanging the queens on the 20th move, Kunte tried to promote his pawn to eighth rank, by sacrificing the knight. But Vidit played accurately and nullified the advantage to share the point.
In a double bishop ending, with equal pawns, Indian Deepan Chakkravarthy forced third seeded Konstantin Landa of Russia to split point.
Ukraine's Sergey Fedorchuk overlooked a powerful combination of Ziaur Rahman's queen and bishop to get virtually checkmated in 31 moves. Ziaur, who defeated top seeded Nigel Short in an earlier round, has climbed back to the top.
In a marathon battle, Barbosa prevailed over Pantsulaia Levan of Georgia, courtesy two extra pawns in the queen and pawns ending.
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Former world championship finalist and top seed Nigel Short of England bounced back from his draw sequences cutting short a challenge from Indian GM Debashis Das. Short sacrificed his a- pawn and the counter play from Debashis was not proper. Short further made an exchange sacrifice to obtain a superior position and win the game.
Mchedlishvili Mikheil of Georgia accounted for another Bangladesh GM Abdulla Al-Rakib in a queen pawn's game lasting only 29 moves.
Important results of seventh round
Kunte Abhijit IND 5 1/2 drew with Vidit Santosh Gujrathi IND 5 1/2
Landa Konstantin RUS 5 drew with Deepan Chakkravarthy J. IND 5
Barbosa Oliver PHI 5 1/2 beat Pantsulaia Levan GEO 4 1/2
Rahman Ziaur BAN 5 1/2 beat Fedorchuk Sergey A. UKR 4
Abdulla Al-Rakib BAN 4 lost to Mchedlishvili Mikheil GEO 5
Adhiban B. IND 5 beat Shyam Sundar M. IND 4
Lalith Babu M.R. IND 5 beat Ghosh Diptayan IND 4
Grigoryan Avetik ARM 5 beat Haznedaroglu Kivanc TUR 4
Sethuraman S.P. IND 5 beat Rathnakaran K. IND 4
Sengupta Deep IND 5 beat Laxman R.R. IND 4
Short Nigel D. ENG 4 1/2 beat Debashis Das IND 3 1/2
Kunal M. IND 4 drew with Gopal G.N. IND 4
Arun Prasad S. IND 4 drew with Karthikeyan P. IND 4
Prasanna Raghuram Rao IND 4 drew with Swayams Mishra IND 4
Hossain Enamul BAN 3 1/2 drew with Sundararajan Kidambi IND 4