Lugovskoy maintains lead, Saurabh Anand shocks Slovakian GM

: Russian GM Maxim Lugovskoy was in the lead with 6.5 points after the seventh round in the 11th Chennai Open International Grand Master chess tournament here Tuesday.

The top board game between GMs Lugovskoy and Luka Paichadze ended in a hard fought 56-move draw. The Caro Kann game saw periodical exchange of pieces leaving them out with a king and bishop ending. The draw was agreed when they reached a position, where neither had chances.

Bihar's Saurabh Anand put it across GM Mikulas Manik of Slovakia, to keep his International Master norm chances alive, winning in 33 moves.

Anand, who came up with an IM norm performance in the recent IIFL Mumbai Open, has remained undefeated against the four titled players he has faced.

Sharing the second spot with six points are Luka Paichadze, Levan Pantsulaia (both Georgia), Alexandr Predke (Russia), Kirill Stupak (Belarus) and Karthik Venkataraman (India).

Results: Round 7 (Indians unless specified): Maxim Lugovskoy (Rus) 6.5 drew with Luka Paichadze (Geo) 6, Aleksej Aleksandrov (Blr) 5.5 lost to Levan Pantsulaia (Geo) 6, Alexandr Predke (Rus) 6 beat Gajek Radoslaw (Aut) 5, Ivan Popov (Rus) 5.5 drew with N R Vignesh (5.5).

Andrei Deviatkin (Rus) 5.5 drew with Erigaisi Arjun (5.5), Attila Czebe (Hun) 5 lost to Kirill Stupak (Blr) 6, Tran Tuan Minh (Vie) 5.5 drew with Nguyen Van Huy (Vie) 5.5, Karthik Venkataraman (6) beat P Shyaam Nikhil (5), Saurabh Anand (5.5) beat Manik Mikulas (Svk) 4.5.

Round 6: Shyaam Nikhil 5) lost to Lugovskoy 6, Paichadze 5.5 bt Girish A Koushik (4.5), A Ra Harikrishnan (4.5) lost to Aleksandrov 5.5, Nguyen Van Huy 5 drew with Karthik Venkataraman (5), Erigaisi Arjun (5) beat A L Muthaiah (4.5), Utkal Ranjan Sahoo (4) lost to Predke 5, Walaa Sarwat (Egy) 4 lost to Pantsulaia (Geo) 5, C Sai Vishwesh (4) lost to Popov (Rus) 5.