Five players share lead at halfway stage

Grandmasters Nguyen Duc Hoa, Ziaur Rahman and Martyn Kravstiv defeated GMs Pantsulaia Levan and Aleksandrov Aleksej and IM P Karthikeyan respectively in round five of the Rs 11 lakh prize money 8th Mumbai Mayor's International Chess Tournament here today.
The three winners joined overnight leaders GM Dmitry Kokarev and GM Pavel Smirnov, who agreed for a draw when facing one another in just 15 moves.
All these five players are now on 4.5 points and a further group of eleven players are half a point behind them at the halfway stage of the tournament that is being held at the suburban Goregaon Sports Club and co-sponsored by Life Insurance Corporation of India and Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai.

The highlight of the day's play was the victory of Vietnam's Nguen over defending champion Levan in just 28 moves from the black side of English opening.
The uncharacteristic opening play of GM Levan was quickly punished by Nguyen, who also sacrificed his queen for two rooks to win effortlessly thereafter.
Also notable was the victory of Bangladesh's Rahman over Aleksandrov, who is rated more than 100 points above him in the ELO scale.

On board five, GM Kravstiv Martyn adopted the Maroczy Bind structure against the Sicilian Defense of IM Karthikeyan. The game went on equal footing till move 45 when a blunder by Karthikeyan allowed Martyn to launch a mating attack forcing the Indian to concede defeat.

The day also witnessed the conclusion of 'B' category tournament, which was won by 11-year old Sankarsha Shelke from Maharashtra who became richer by Rs 1 lakh.
The 2nd and 3rd prizes, worth Rs 75,000 and 50,000 respectively, were bagged by Aishwin Daniel of MP and Siddhant Gaikwad of Maharashtra.