Indian GM Karthik Venkataraman, Aleksandrov in joint lead in Delhi Open chess

Indian Grandmaster Karthik Venkatraman continued with his winning ways as he defeated Hose Martinez Eduardo of Peru to share the lead with Aleksej Aleksandrov of Belarus at the end of the fifth round in the Delhi International Open chess tournament here on Sunday.

Vernkataraman, who is having the run of his life, registered an emphatic win with black pieces against the Peruvian player. He was tested by Eduardo who played white but the Indian managed to come up trumps in 55 moves.

Aleksandrov defeated seasoned Bangladeshi Grandmaster Ziaur Rahman in a tense battle wherein the Belorussian had the final say.

With two players sharing the lead, C R G Krishna is at joint second with three others on 4.5 points while a pack of 30 players are close behind with four points. This list includes top seed Farrukh Amonatov of Tajikistan and five-time Commonwealth champion Abhijeet Gupta.

Al Muthaiah caused his second big upset of the tournament as he defeated Karthikeyan Murali, the highest rated Indian in the field. After a hard fought middle game, Muthaiah was able to stage a huge comeback in the Queen and Rook endgame where his queen and rook dominated the important part of the board.

In the other upset results of the day, M Pranesh put it across Stanislav Bogdanovich of Ukraine while Italian GM Alberto David was held to a draw by local talent Aaryan Varshney. V Pranav also did well to hold GM R Lalith Babu. Five rounds still remain in the biggest open tournament of Asia.

In the B category of the chess festival, Himanshu Moudgil of Delhi won the title to pocket a cash prize of Rs 3 lakh.

Important results: Round 5: Karthik Venkataraman (India) 5 beat Martinez Alcantara Jose Eduardo (Peru) 4; Aleksej Aleksandrov (Belarus) 5 beat Ziaur Rahman (Bangladesh) 4; CRG Krishna (India) 4.5 drew with Ivan Rozum (Russia) 4; Florian Kaczur (Hungary) 4 drew with Farrukh Amonatov (Tajikistan) 4; Nguyen Van Huy (Vietnam) 4 drew with Kirill Stupak (Belarus) 4; Pavel Ponkratov (Russia) 3.5 drew with Ortik Nigmatov (Uzbekistan) 4; Al Muthaiah (India) 4 beat Karthikeyan Murali (India) 3; Bharat Kumar Reddy Poluri (India) 3 lost to Abhijeet Gupta (India) 4.