Three Indians at the top with five other players

Three Indians - GM Deepan Chakkravarthy, GM Diptayan Ghosh and IM Sayantan Das - were at the top along with five other players with 4.5 points each at the end of the fifth round in the 10th Mumbai Mayor's Cup International Open Chess Tournament today.

The others who are in front were GM Mollah Abdullah Al Rakib (Bangladesh), GM Tukhaev Adam (Ukraine), GM Murshed Niaz (Bangladesh), IM Khusenkhojaev Muhammad (Tajikistan) and GM Babujian Levon (Armenia).

However, the most notable performance in round five came from India's Saravana Krishnan (Elo 2353) who forced top seed, GM Amonatov Farrukh (2635) of Tajikistan, to play out a draw.
 

Krishnan started with the French defence against the heavyweight Farukh, who seemed a bit cautious and opted to play a waiting game.

After regular exchange of pieces initially, they both were not prepared to take any risks and agreed to a draw after 37 moves.

On the top board, second ranked Diptayan (2569) shared honours with Bangladesh GM Murshed (2423) as they played out a draw.

Meanwhile on the second board in an all-India affair, GM Chakkravarthy and IM Das started the game in London system. They engaged in regular exchange of pieces before deciding to settle for a draw after 34 moves.

Results: Round 5 (Top 10 boards): GM Murshed Niaz (Elo 2423, BAN) 4.5 drew with GM Diptayan Ghosh (2569, IND) 4.5; GM Deepan Chakkravarthy J. (2480, IND) 4.5 drew with IM Sayantan Das (2401, IND) 4.5; GM Amonatov Farrukh (2635, TJK) 4 drew with Saravana Krishnan P(2353, IND) 4; GM Tukhaev Adam (2567, UKR) 4.5 beat FM Sai Krishna G.V. (2339, IND) 3.5; GM Mollah Abdullah Al Rakib (2484, BAN) 4.5 beat IM Sangma Rahul (2337, IND) 3; FM Mohammad Fahad Rahman (2305, BAN) 3.5 lost to GM Babujian Levon (2438, ARM) 4.5; IM Khusenkhojaev Muhammad (2424, TJK) 4.5 beat WCM Mrudul Dehankar (1942, IND) 3.5; Mithil Ajgaonkar (2203, IND) 3 lost to GM Rahman Ziaur (2526, BAN) 4; IM Karthikeyan P. (2502, IND) 4 beat Sekar B. (2252, IND) 3; CM Aditya Mittal (2211, IND) 3 lost to GM Grover Sahaj (2485, IND) 4.