GM Abhijeet maintains sole lead

PUNE, July 4: Top seed Abhijeet Gupta retained the sole lead after claiming his fourth win, while International Master Aswath S stole the limelight by registering the biggest upset of the day, defeating Belarus Grandmaster Fedorov Alexei in the fifth round of the Pune International Grandmaster Round Robin chess tournament here on Saturday.

On the top board, Gupta defeated FIDE Master Advik Agarwal to strengthen his position at the top of the leaderboard with four points, while Aswath's win took his tally to 3.5 points, moving him into second place in the standings.

All five games in Round 5 produced decisive results.

Aswath employed an imaginative and unconventional opening that caught Fedorov off guard and allowed him to seize the initiative early in the game. Although Fedorov fought back strongly and Aswath missed a couple of opportunities to convert his advantage, the Belarusian faltered under severe time pressure. Aswath capitalised on the crucial errors to seal a memorable victory.

In another all-Indian encounter, International Master Kushagra Mohan outplayed International Master Nitish Belurkar. Belarus Grandmaster Aleksej Aleksandrov defeated Sri Lanka's LMST De Silva, while International Master Akshay Borgaonkar scored his first point of the tournament with an impressive victory over FIDE Master Vaidyanathan Kannan.

Results: Round Robin 5th Round:

IM Nitish Belurkar(0pts)(Ind) lost to IM Kushagra Mohan(1pts)(Ind);

GM Fedorov Alexei(0pts)(Blr) lost to IM Aswath S(1pts)(Ind);

FM Advik Agrawal(0pts)(Ind) lost to GM Abhijeet Gupta(1pts)(Ind);

GM Aleksandrov, Aleksej(1pts)(Blr) bt IM De Silva LMST(0pts)(Slr);

IM Akshay Borgaonkar(1pts) bt FM Vaidyanathan Kannan(0pts)(USA). (PTI)