Grandmaster Magerramov Elmar of Azerbaijan emerged as the sole leader with five points at the end of the fifth round of Emirates Open Chess Championship held at Dubai Chess and Culture Club.
Grandmaster Rausis Igors of Bangladesh is half a point behind the leader.
The other following him are Grandmaster Bistric Faruk of Bosnia, International Master Sale Srdjan of Croatia, Amer Mohammad of Egypt and Hilwani Talal.
The UAE's Khalid Khamis Magerramov defeated Amer Mohammad of Egypt. Magerramov handled the opening well and maintained an upper hand throughout the game
Igors defeated Bistric Faruk in 39 moves from a Queens Gambit accepted variation.
Rausis created passed pawn and mounted pressure in the queenside. Rausis gave the pawn for a knight and nursed his advantage to victory.
Sale Srdjan defeated IM Al Arousy Abdul Hameed of Egypt in 33 moves from a French defence. Players had a tough fight in the kingside.
Arousy resigned on the 33rd move as he could parry the threats against his king.
Yahaya Saleh and Khalid Khamis caused an upset win by outplaying strong expatriate players like Rodrigues, Inacio and Danny Baltazar.
Results (round five):
Amer, Mohammad (4) lost to Magerramov Elmar (5); Rausis Igor (4.5) bt Bistric, Faruk (4); Sale Srdjan (4) bt Al Arousy, Abdul Hameed (3.5); Khalid Khamis, Ali (4) bt Rodrigues, Inacio (3); Danny Baltazar (3) lost to Yahya, Mohammad Saleh (4); Al Khaja, Arif (3) lost to Omar Abdulwahab (4); Othman, Rabeea (4) bt Saeed (4), Yousuf (3); Marwan, Abdulwahab (3) lost to Hilwani, Talal (4); Mohammad Ebrahim Moha (3.5) bt Mohammad Zamir Bahzad (2.5); Khalifa Khamis (3.5) bt Ahmad Abdul Gafour (2.5 ).
