IM Krishna maintains lead

18-year-old Rohith Krishna retained his sole leader status by a point while Viani ,GM Alexandrov Aleksej and R R Laxman are bunched together in second spot with 7.5 points. A draw will suffice Rohith tomorrow in the final 11th round to win the title while a loss would still put him in the race for the title if he has better tie-break after the completion of the final round.

The four knights game between IM Milosz Szpar and overnight sole leader IM Rohith Krishna had a few interesting moments in the Opening with Black King coming to the centre and his queen, bishop and knight trying for an early King-hunt. At this point Milosz defended well and appeared to have an edge but a couple of inaccurate moves allowed Rohith to gain winning advantage. The game petered to a ending where White had a knight, rook and 3 pawns as against King, double rooks and 2 pawns. Rohit won after 68 moves.

Mayank Cha kraborty was in an aggressive mood after employing the French defence against Viani after enjoying a good position in the Opening stages. Getting a tad ambitious Mayank lost way after sacrificing a pawn and then a knight on the 24th move. He doubled his queen and rook in the King rook file but insufficient pieces and some comfortable defence by Viani didn’t allow him any headway. Viani in turn sacrificed his bishop on the 30th turn to set up a checkmating net and clinch the game in 33 moves.

The foreign Grandmasters continued to find the going tough, Zakhartsov Viacheslav conceding a draw to Sanket Chakravarty of West Bengal in a Queen’s Gambit Accepted game lasting 21 moves. FM Nikhil Dixit of Maharashtra held GM Vladimir Burmakin to a draw in 26 moves of a Caro-Kann game. Third seed Luka Paichadze of Georgia also had to split point with Subhayan Kundu of West Bengal in a Sicilian game lasting 35 moves.