Lalith Babu holds Luka Paichadze to a draw at Maharashtra Open Grandmaster Chess tournament

Overnight sole leader GM Luka Paichadze was held to a draw in the fifth round of the 1st Maharashtra International Open Grandmaster Chess tournament on Friday.

Luka Paichadze's four-match winning streak was halted by MR Lalith Babu in the fifth round at the Shri Shiv Chhatrapati Stadium in Balewadi, near Pune.

This allowed Deep Sengupta, LR Srihari, Nguyen Duc Hoa and Arjun Kalyan to catch up with Luka at the top of the points tally at 4.5 points. Nine other players are right behind at four points apiece in this 11-round Swiss league chess event. Two rounds are scheduled for Friday, the sixth one to be held later in the evening.

LR Srihari admitted “Aleksej walked into my preparation and had an advantage from the opening stages of the game. It may have gone a bit off track but I soon rallied to get back into the game."

The Chennai youngster capitalized on a rook pin to net a pawn and succeeded in pushing one of his pawns to the queening square.

The foreign chess Grandmasters with higher ratings had a tough time against the Indians today, the biggest upset created by LR Srihara who shocked GM Aleksej Aleksandrov rated 7th.

International Master Bhakti Kulkarni, easily the pick of the women's chess players in action, shocked the highly rated IM Nigmatov Ortik.

Nagpur chess player Anup Deshmukh’s dream run was halted by GM Arjun Kalyan

IM Anup Deshmukh, who has been cruising over the last couple of days, was beaten by GM Arjun Kalyan in an intriguing chess match.

Birthday boy GM Deepan Chakravarthy has not been in the best of form and had to settle for a draw. Youngster Aditya Mittal outwitted Viano Dcunha while GM M R Venkatesh, rated 8th, ended on the losing side against Ameya Audi.

Bhakti Kulkarni showed fine chess technique to convert a rook and opposite coloured bishop ending where she had a couple of disconnected pawns. Ortik tried to defend stubbornly, hoping that after the exchange of rooks, the opposing bishop game may end in a draw.

Bhakti, however, rallied her pawns, bishop, rook and king together to clinch the game. The seventh round will be played on Saturday.

GM Farrukh Amonatov (L) playing against GM Enamul Hossain in the fifth round in Pune on Friday. (Pic credit: AICF)

Maharashtra Chess Results (Round 5)

GM MR Lalith Babu (4) drew with GM Luka Paichadze (4.5)

GM Deep Sengupta (4.5) bt Aditya Samant (3.5)

GM Vishnu Prasanna (4) drew with GM Boris Savchenko (4)

GM Aeksej Aleksandrov (3.5) lost to LR Srihari (4.5)

GM Nguyen Duc Hoa (4.5) bt V Karthik (3.5)

GM Arjun Kalyan (4.5) bt Anup Deshmukh (3.5)

GM Farrukh Amonatov (4) bt GM Enamul Hossain

GM MR Venkatesh (3) lost to Ameya Audi (4)

IM Aditya Mittal (4) bt IM Viani Antonio Dcunha (3)

GM Mihail Nikitenko (4) bt Srihari L (3)

IM Bhakti Kulkarni (4) bt IM Ortik Nigmatov (3)

Kaustuv Kundu (3.5) drew with IM Mohammad Nubairshah Shaikh (3.5)

GM Alexei Federov (2.5) lost to Jimmy Jubin (3.5).