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Abhijeet Gupta fought his way back to a five-way lead in the penultimate round of the 19th Delhi International Open chess tournament at Tivoli Gardens in New Delhi.
The defending champion defeated Poormosavi Seyed Kian of Iran in the ninth round on Monday.
It was Gupta’s sixth victory in a row following a disastrous start which helped him collect 7.5 points. He joined overnight leaders Arjun Erigaisi, D Gukesh, and Harsha Bharthakoti with just one round to go.
SP Sethuraman accounted for Pavel Ponkratov of Russia to match these four on points.
Meanwhile, Poormosavi Seyed Kian became the first player in the tournament to score an International Masters norm. The other norm aspirant is Neelash Saha, who needs a victory in the final round to make the Grandmaster the norm.
Erigaisi played out an effortless draw as black against Gukesh out of a Sicilian Najdorf, where the pieces changed hands right from the early middle of the game. The players soon reached an endgame where neither side had a chance.
Bharthakoti drew with Saha, who played white. Meanwhile, Sethuraman was at his best in outwitting Ponkratov.
Abhijeet Gupta beat Poormosavi Seyed Kian of Iran in 45 moves
Abhijeet Gupta had a good day in the office as he downed Poormosavi Seyed Kian of Iran, who remained with 6.5 points to his credit.
The champion of the last 2020 edition, Gupta won a pawn in the Bishop and Pawns endgame. The technicalities were never a problem, and he wrapped up the issue with 45 moves.
Important Results (Round 9) (Indians otherwise stated)
D Gukesh (7.5) drew with Erigaisi Arjun (7.5)
Neelash Saha (7) drew with Harsha Bharathakoti (7.5)
Poormosavi Seyed Kian of Iran (6.5) lost to Abhijeet Gupta (7.5)
Pavel Ponkratov of Russia (6) lost to SP Sethuraman (7.5)
MR Lalith Babu (7) beat Abdusalamov Abdimalik of Uzbekistan (6)
NR Visakh (6) lost to Himal Gusain (7)
P Iniyan (6.5) drew with Viani Antonio Dcunha (6.5)
Saptarshi Roy (6) lost to Karthik Venkataraman (7)
Mirzoev Azer of Azerbaijan (6.5) drew with Divya Deshmukh (6.5)
P Karthikeyan (6) lost to Tahbaz Arash of Iran (7)
Nigmatov Ortik of Uzbekistan (7) beat Borgaonkar Akshay (6)
Rohith Krishna S (6.5) drew with N Vignesh (6.5)
Aradhya Garg (6.5) drew with Deepan Chakkravarthy (6)
Delgado Ramirez Neuris of Paraguay (6.5) beat Liyanage Ranindu Dilshan of Sri Lanka (5.5)
Utsab Chatterjee (6.5) beat Mosadeghpour Masoud of Iran (5.5).
