New Delhi Mar 28 PTI Defending champion Abhijeet Gupta defeated Irans Poormosavi Seyed Kian in the penultimate round to take a joint lead in the 19th Delhi International open chess tournament here on Monday With his sixth victory in a row following a disastrous start Gupta reached 75 points to join overnight leaders Arjun Erigaisi D Gukesh and Harsha Bharthakoti while S P Sethuraman accounted for Pavel Ponkratov of Russia to match these four on points Poormosavi Seyed Kian meanwhile became the first player in the tournament to score an International Master norm The other norm aspirant is Neelash Saha who needs a victory in the final round to make a Grandmaster norm At the top of the table Erigaisi Arjun played out an effortless draw as black against Gukesh out of a Sicilian Najdorf where the pieces changed hands right from the early middle game The players soon reached an endgame where neither side had chances Bharthakoti drew with Saha who played white while Sethuraman was at his best in outwitting Ponkratov For Gupta it was a good day in the office The champion of the last edition in 2020 won a pawn in the Bishop and pawns endgame The technicalities were never a problem and Gupta wrapped the issue in 45 moves Important Results Round 9 Indians otherwise stated - D Gukesh 75 drew with Erigaisi Arjun 75 Neelash Saha 7 drew with Harsha Bharathakoti 75 Poormosavi Seyed Kian of Iran 65 lost to Abhijeet Gupta 75 Pavel Ponkratov of Russia 6 lost to S P Sethuraman 75 M R Lalith Babu 7 beat Abdisalimov Abdimalik of Uzbekistan 6 N R Visakh 6 lost to Himal Gusain 7 P Iniyan 65 drew with Viani Antonio Dcunha 65 Saptarshi Roy 6 lost to Karthik Venkataraman 7 Mirzoev Azer of Azerbaijan 65 drew with Divya Deshmukh 65 P Karthikeyan 6 lost to Tahbaz Arash of Iran 7 Nigmatov Ortik of Uzebkistan 7 beat Borgaonkar Akshay 6 Rohith Krishna S 65 drew with N Vignesh 65 Aradhya Garg 65 drew with Deepan Chakkravarthy 6 Delgado Ramirez Neuris of Praguay 65 beat Liyanage Ranindu Dilshan of Sri Lanka 55 Utsab Chatterjee 65 beat Mosadeghpour Masoud of Iran 55 PTI APA BS BS

New Delhi Mar 27 PTI Top seed Arjun Erigaisi Harsha Bharathakoti and D Gukesh on Sunday emerged as joint leaders at the 19th edition of Delhi International Open Grandmasters Chess tournament here With just two rounds remaining the tournament is heading for an exciting finish as the three Indians are now leading the standings with seven points The eighth round witnessed fierce battles which produced decisive results on top six boards as Erigaisi annihilated former national champion Lalith Babu M R in 28 moves in Scotch game Harsha meanwhile shocked second seed Grandmaster Pavel Ponkratov of Russia with light colour pieces in a Semi-Slav game after 58 moves Gukesh the youngest ever Indian to secure the Grandmaster title also claimed a win beating Karthik Venkataraman with dark colour pieces in a Queens Gambit Declined game that lasted just 29 moves Defending champion Abhijeet Gupta along with fifth seed Sethuraman S P International Master Neelash Saha and Iranian FIDE Master Kian Seyed Poormosavi occupied the joint fourth spot with a drift of half a point from the leaders Abhijeet defeated CRG Krishna while Sethu got the better of Ortik Nigmatov of Uzbekistan Neelash stunned fourth seed Neuris Delgado Ramirez of Paraguay and Poormosavi beat Deepan Chakkaravarthy in the eighth-round match In the all-important penultimate round Arjun is pitted against Gukesh on top board while Harsha will fight it out with Neelash Saha on Monday Important Results Round 8 Indians otherwise stated GM Arjun Erigaisi 7 beat GM Lalith Babu M R 6 GM Harsha Bharathakoti 7 beat GM Pavel Ponkratov fo Russia 6 GM Karthik Venkataraman 6 lost to Gukesh D 7 GM Sethuraman S P 65 beat Ortik Nigamatov of Uzbekistan 6 GM Abhijeet Gupta 65 beat IM Krishna CRG 55 IM Neelash Saha 65 beat GM Neuris Delgado Ramirez of Paraguay 55 IM Vignesh N R 6 drew with GM Visakh N R 6 GM Deepan Chakkravarthy 55 lost to FM Poormosavi Seyed Kian 65 IM Himal Gusain 6 drew with GM Iniyan P 6 IM Abdisalimov Abdimalik 6 drew with GM Azer Mirzoev of Azerbaijan 6 GM Mitrabha Guha 55 drew with GM Karthikeyan P 6 GM Arjun Kalyan 55 drew with Bharat Kumar Reddy Poluri 55 GM Adham Fawzy 5 lost to FM Aardhya Garg 6 IM Arash Tahbaz of Iran 6 beat Manigandan S S 5 WGM Divya Deshmukh 6 beat Syaamnikhil P 5 FM Aaryan Varshney 55 drew with Gholami Orimi Mahdi 55 WIM Arpita Mukherjee 5 lost to GM Saptarshi Roy 6 WGM Srija Seshadri 55 drew with IM Shahil Dey 55 IM Viani Antonio Dcunha 6 beat FM Siddhant Gaikwad 5 Shiva Pavan Teja Sharma U 55 drew with Utsab Chatterjee 55 Akshay Borgaonkar 6 beat IM Ratnakaran K 5 Kian Dishank Shah 5 lost to FM Rohith Krishna S 6 GM Masoud Mosadeghpour of Iran 55 beat Pravin Shawn 5 IM Sayantan Das 55 beat Vinayak Kulkarani 55 GM Rios Christhian Camilo 55 beat WIM Michelle Catherina P 55 PTI ATK PDS PDS