Nihal Sarin closes in on final Grandmaster norm

Young Nihal Sarin closed in on his final Grandmaster norm after settling for a draw with Romanian GM Constantin Lupulescu in the seventh round of Abu Dhabi Chess here today.

Having done the hard work, Nihal theoretically requires one point out of the last two to become the next Grandmaster of India, but the statistic reveal that if all goes well, even a half point will be enough for the 14-year-old Kerala boy to become the third Grandmaster from his state after G N Gopal and S L Narayanan.

It turned out to be a good day for the fancied Indians as Murali Larthikeyan came up with a superlative effort to down Vladimir fedoseev of Russia and Aravindh Chithambaram crashed through the defences of Marty Kravitsiv of Ukraine.

Local stalwart A R Salem Saleh, who also represents the Delhi team in the PRO-Chess league, was in his element as he defeated top seed Le Quang Liem of Vietnam to join overnight leaders Daniil Dubov of Russia and Anton Korobov of Ukraine in lead on six points from seven rounds.

Karthikeyan and Chithambaram are two players in pursuit of a podium finish from India as both reached 5.5 points and shared the fourth spot along with Richard Rapport of Hungary, Parham Maghsoodloo of Iran, Gabriel Sargissian of Armenia and Ivan Cheparinov of Georgia.

Many norm aspirants remained on course while a few lost their way and will be hoping to recover with just two rounds to come in one of the strongest opens of the continent.

Young International Master P Iniyan kept himself in contention for a Grandmaster norm holding Tigran Petrosian of Armenia to a draw but D Gukesh fell out of contention after losing to Firouza Alireza of Iran.

V S Rathanvel made a strong claim for his International Master norm beating Grandmaster M Shyam Sundar.

11-year old Pranav Anand remained an IM norm aspirant despite losing to highly rated Grandmaster Sjugirov Sanan of Russia while Sankalp Gupta almost ensured his IM norm by beating Grandmaster Abhijit Kunte.

Important and Indian results round 7 (Indians unless stated): Daniil Dubov (Rus, 6) drew with Anton Korobov (Ukr, 6); A R Salem Saleh (Uae, 6) beat Le Quang Liem (Vie, 4.5); Rapport Richard (Hun, 5.5) beat Amin Tabatabaei (Iri, 4.5); Vocaturo Daniele (Ita, 4.5) lost to Ivan Cheparinov (Geo, 5.5); Murali Karthikeyan (5.5)beat Vladimir Fedoseev (Rus, 4.5); Gabriel Sargissian (Arm, 5.5) beat Levan Pantsulaia (Geo, 4.5); Aravindh Chithambaram (5.5) beat Kravtsiv Martyn (Ukr, 4.5); S L Narayanan (4.5) lost to Parham Maghsoodloo (Iri, 5.5); Lupulescu Constantin (Rou, 4.5) drew with Nihal Sarin (5); Erigaisi Arjun (4.5) drew with Amin Bassem (Egy, 4.5);Vladimir Akopian (Arm, 5) beat Abhimanyu Puranik (4); Aryan Chopra (4.5) drew with Adly Ahmed (Egy, 4.5): Abhijeet Gupta (4.5) drew with Kadric Denis (Bos, 4.5); P Iniyan (4.5) drew with Tigran Petrosian (Arm, 4.5); S Nitin (4.5) drew with Jojua Davit (Geo, 4.5);
Debashis Das (5) beat Aaryan Varshney (4); Pranav Anand (4) lost to Sjugirov Sanan (Rus, 4.5); Sundararajan Kidambi (3.5) lost to Nigel Short (4.5); Firouzja Alireza (Iri, 4.5) beat D Gukesh (3.5); Abhijit Kunte (3.5) lost to Sankalp Gupta (4.5); Nguyen Anh Khoi (Vie, 4.5) beat Dushyant Sharma (3.5); V S Rathanvel (4.5) beat M Shyam Sundar (3); Raunak Sadhwani (4) beat Mary Ann Gomes (3); Koustav Chatterjee (4) beat Ikeda Junta (Ina, 3); Shailesh Dravid