Abu Dhabi: Grandmaster (GM) Nils Grandelius regained the lead with two rounds of the Abu Dhabi Masters Chess Championship remaining after the Swede forced joint-leader Richard Rapport of Hungary to resign in 41 moves.
Grandelius, who now has six points, was the sole leader after round four before squandering his advantage. However, on Saturday he regained the lost ground by beating Rapport to set up a crucial contest with GM Alexander Areschenko of Ukraine in the penultimate round.
The top prize of $12,000 (Dh44,000) is very much in sight of Grandelius, but he cannot afford any slip up as seven others including Arsechenko are on his tail, just half a point behind.
Indian GMs Abhijeet Gupta, Baadur Jobava of Georgia, Martyn Kravtsiv of Ukraine, Dariusz Swiercz of Poland, Peter Prohaszka of Hungary and Tigran Petrosian of Armenia are the others tied at 5.5 points.
Areschenko drew with Gupta after 62 moves.
Former Georgian champion and Olympiad gold medallist Jobabva got the better of Kaido Kulaots of Estonia in 48 moves. Kravtsiv, Youth Olympiad gold medallist in 2006, drew in 31 moves with Vladimir Akopian of Armenia.
2011 world junior champion Swiercz tamed Ukraine’s Yuriy Kuzubov in 38 moves, while Petrosian made the most of a slip-up from second seed Yuriy Kryvoruchko of Ukraine to win in 31 moves.
Akopian, G.N. Gopal of India, Rapport, Gawain Jones of England, Hovhannes Gabuzyan of Armenia and Ehsan Ghaem Maghami of Iran are on five points each.
In the open tournament, Omani sensation Salim Al Aamri Musallam has taken the sole lead with 6.5 points from seven rounds. In the junior division, two Azerbaijanis, Said Rafili and Vugar Manafov, share the lead with 6.5 points each.
