Grandmaster and former world junior champion Abhijeet Gupta kept himself in contention for top honours with a sparkling victory over Sebastian Bogner of Switzerland in the 8th and penultimate round of 16th Dubai International open chess tournament here today.
On what turned out to be another good day for Gupta, things fell in place in the middle game against Bogner and the Indian did some precise calculation to become sole second with just one round to come in the USD 50000 prize-money tournament.
Romain Edouard of France continued to remain in sole lead after he accounted for Kazakh Grandmaster Anuar Ismagambetov. It turned out to be an easy ride for the French who used his white pieces to maximum effect.
Edouard took his tally to seven points out of a possible eight and this is indeed a spectacular result so far. While Gupta is sole second on 6.5 points, as many as six players also rose to contention for a podium finish with good result in the penultimate round.
Top seed Anton Korobov of Ukraine, his compatriot Yuriy Kuzubov, Gawain Jones of England, defending champion Aleksandr Rakhmanov of Russia, Edouardo Itturizaga of Venezuela, had it easy as black against Paraguay's Axel Bachmann and Croatian Hrvoje Stevic rose to six points to pose stiff challenge for the two leaders.
Amongst Indians in the fray, M R Lalith Babu defeated Sahaj Grover while M Shyam Sundar did well to beat Russian Sergey Volkov to reach 5.5 points. For a good finish both Shyam Sundar and Lalith Babu need a victory in the final round.
Gupta was in control against Bogner who employed the Slav defense in the opening. The Swiss GM played at a brisk pace in the initially stages as he had a long preparation. Abhijeet fell behind on the clock but was not bullied as he worked his way to get huge complications on board.
Gupta later converted to a rook and minor piece endgame where his rook proved to be more powerful and damaging than his opponent's. Bogner fought on but there was no stopping the Indian.
In the final round, Gupta will meet Edouardo Iturrizaga of Venezuela while Romain has a tough customer in Korobov. The winner of the tournament will take home USD 10000.
