Toufighi Homayoon of Iran emerged as the sole leader with seven points at the end of the eighth and penultimate round of the Dubai Junior Chess Championship being held at Dubai Chess and Culture Club.

Safarli Eltaj, Agayev Nidjat of Azerbaijan, Sai Srinivas, Arjun Vishnuvardhan of India and Khademi Mohammad of Iran are in the second spot with 6.5 points.

Two games were held on the same day. The final round will be a cliffhanger with Toufighi having a slight edge with half a point lead. He is expected to clinch the title.

Toufighi won in 49 moves a crucial match against Salehian, Sina.

Khademi Mohammad defeated Kouhestani M. Shahin of Iran in a good game.

In the opening, Kouhestani went for a pawn in b2 which was a drastic mistake and gave him lot of trouble. Khademi gradually outplayed his opponent and turned the table in his favour.

Among UAE players, Abdulkarim Ali, Salem A.R. Saleh and Ali Khamis Ali shared the lead with 5.5 points while Marwan Abdul Wahab, Saeed Ishaq and Hamed Abdul Razaq are in the second spot with five points.

Salem A.R. Saleh defeated Romasanta Myco of Philippines in a position game. Romasanta bungled a tactical position and lost a piece and never recovered.