Mozharov in sole lead

Grandmaster Mikhail Mozharov of Russia shot into sole lead following victory over Indian International Master N Srinath in the eighth round of the 13th Parsvnath International Grandmasters chess tournament, here today.
It turned out to be a good day for Mozharov as he displayed his best endgame skills to down Srinath. The middle game was about equal while in the endgame, Srinath allowed a vital breakthrough and could only reach a pawn down position.
Mozharov played the resulting position in copy-book fashion and romped home.
Mozharov took his tally to seven points out of a possible eight in the premier section and is now a half point clear of compatriot Ivan Popov, Andrey Baryshpolets of Ukraine, Van Huy Nguyen of Vietnam and Deepan Chakkravarthy.

In important top games, Va Huy Nguyen defeated Grandmaster Sahaj Grover while Chakkravarthy got the better of S Nitin. The grandmasters duel between Baryshpolets and Popov ended in a draw.
Chakkravarthy emerged as the best placed Indian for the podium finish and he struck form yet again with white pieces. The Philidor defense by Nitin was met with some original play that Chakkravarthy is known for and it was an irresistible attack in the middle game that saved the blushes for Chakkravarthy.

"He made mistake in the middle game as it was not a very well known position, I got this chance of sacrifice and I was happy to give a rook to force checkmate," said Chakkravarthy after the game.

Grover lost after attaining a decent opening against Nguyen who continues with his surprising run in the tournament. The Vietnamese was pushed to the wall early in the opening but wriggled out after an erroneous plan by Grover.
In the endgame Grover lost a couple of pawns but fought back and it was close to a draw when another blunder by the Indian drew curtains on the game.
Among other Indians in the fray, K Rathnakaran posted a fine victory against valeriy Neverov of Ukraine. After defeating top seed Abhijeet Gupta in the previous round, Rathnakaran played his trademark uncompromising chess and cruised with some subtle manoeuvres.

Abhijeet Gupta meanwhile won his game against youngster Utkal Ranjan Sahoo. The former world junior champion inched himself up to five points and will need to win the last two games for a decent finish.