Chess: GMs Aleksej, Levan in the lead at Mumbai Mayor's Cup

Grandmaster Aleksandrov Aleksej of Belarus outwitted International Master Shardul Gagare to jointly share the lead with GM Pantasalaia Levan of Georgia at the end of the seventh round of Mumbai Mayor's Cup International Open Chess Tournament here today.
The game between Gagare and Aleksej turned into Queen's Gambit Declined. On 26th move Shardul played a bad move of knight on the 7th rank attacking the Queen.
Later the exchange of Bishop for a knight handed the advantage to Aleksej. With exchange of rooks Shardul tried to attack his opponent's king, which was well defended by Aleksej who pushed his pawn to the 7th rank.

That proved to be a winning position for Aleksej who went on to win the point in 42 moves.
Overnight sole leader Levan of Georgia was held to a draw by countryman GM Mchedlishvili Mikheil and is placed alongside Aleksej in the leader board with six points each.
They are followed by six others, all with 5.5 points, in the second place. Besides Mikheil and GM Harutjunyan Gevorg of Armenia, the other four are Indians IM Shyam Nikil P, IM Swayams Mishra, IM Himanshu Sharma and IM Ramnath Bhuvanesh R.

The top game between Levan and Mikheil ended quickly as both players agreed to a draw after just 10 moves.

India's Bhuvanesh R defeated GM Papin Vasily of Russia to clinch a full point and jump to the second pace. Vasily has 4.5 points.
The game between GM Amonatov Farrukh and IM Himanshu Sharma ended in a draw after 59 moves, with only the Kings remaining on the board.