Top-seed Ukrainian Grandmaster Alexander Areshchenko took the sole lead stunning Indian youngster M R Lalith Babu, while former National U-17 Champion Saravana Krishnan outwitted Kazakh Grandmaster Petr Kostenko in the seventh round of the Gurgaon International Open Grandmasters Chess Tournament in Gurgaon on Monday.
Areshchenko, who was in joint lead with Lalith Babu yesterday, forced latter to bite the dust in 35 moves and jumped to sole lead with 6.5 points.
Meanwhile, Kostenko became the third Grandmaster in the tournament, who went down to Krishnan. Earlier the Indian defeated Grandmasters Evgeny Gleizerov of Russia and Nurlan Ibrayev of Kazakhstan in second and third round respectively.
It was a dream day for the Ukrainian players as all three Grandmasters in the fray registered emphatic victories in the seventh round of this prestigious tournament.
Indian Grandmaster Neelotpal Das defeated SP Sethuraman in the same round to occupy the second spot with six points along with Yuriy Kuzubov, Yuri Solodovnichenko, RR Laxman and Deep Sengupta.
Laxman defeated International Master Arghyadip Das, while Deep Sengupta got better of Grandmaster Norm holder Prathamesh Mokal.
In other upsets of the day, BS Shivananda defeated Uzbek Grandmaster Safin Shukhrat, while young Rahul Sangma got better of his fancied Indian rival Grandmaster Praveen Thipsay.
{{/usCountry}}In other upsets of the day, BS Shivananda defeated Uzbek Grandmaster Safin Shukhrat, while young Rahul Sangma got better of his fancied Indian rival Grandmaster Praveen Thipsay.
{{/usCountry}}Shashikant Kutwal, continuing his fine form in the tournament, held highly rated Russian Grandmaster Mikhail Ulibin to a creditable draw in the seventh round.