S L Narayanan shocks Attila to join leaders

Narayanan, who has two International Master norms to his credit, handled the Benko gambit offered by his more experienced opponent in a classical fashion as he showed good understanding of the position and slowly outplayed Attila to score a fluent win.

Four Indian players, Grandmasters B Adhiban, M R Lalith Babu, International Master Swapnil Dhopade and untitled youngster S L Narayanan alongwith the top seed Aleksej Aleksandrov, Grandmaster Lu Shanglei and untitled Wan Yunguo, Grandmaster Niaz Murshed and Grandmaster Teske Henrik are on top of the table with 6.5 points.

With this win, Narayanan is in the hunt for his third and final International Master norm.

Another untitled player from China, Wan Yunguo drew with Grandmaster Teske Henrik and has assured himself of an International Master norm from this event.

The top seed GM Aleksej Aleksandrov beat Chennai youngster Karthikeyan Murali to dent the latter's chances of a norm.

Three more rounds remain to be played in this event. ARN