Swapnil Dhopade and Nitin S, both International Masters, recorded upset wins against GMs Aleksandrov Aleksej of Belarus and Ziaur Rahman of Bangladesh respectively in the 8th round of the BMC-LIC sponsored 8th Mumbai Mayor's International Chess Tournament here today.
Aleksej overestimated his chances and made a crucial mistake to hand over the full point to his Indian rival Dhopade. The trend of GMs losing to an IMs continued as Rahman went down to another Indian, Nitin.
Both Dhopade and Nitin are in joint second place with seven other players in the tournament which is being held at the suburban Goregaon Sports Club.
Jointly occupying the second spot were Alexander Zubov Alexander, Dmitry Kokarev Pavel Smirnov, Luka Paichadze, Mikheil Mchedlishvili, Nguyen Duc, Swapnil Dhopade, S Nitin and Harsha Bharathakoti.
Meanwhile, leading Indian title contenders, GM R R Laxman and IM Priyadarshan, along with GM Kravstiv Martyn of Ukraine, continued to share the lead with 6.5 points each with two rounds remaining.
The match between the two overnight leaders, Laxman and Martyn turned out to be a tame affair as the duo decided to draw their encounter in just 14-moves from the Catalan opening and they now wait for the right opponents in the next two rounds.
An interesting battle ensued on board two in the game between GM Alexander Zubov and joint overnight leader Priyadarshan, who is rated 150 points below his rival on the ELO ratings.
Zubov, who is trailing Priyadarshan by half a point, used all his experience to try and win the game. However, his Indian opponent proved equal to the task and his accurate defense in the queen and minor piece ending with equal pawns saved the day for him. The players signed the peace treaty after 67 moves.
Both these results meant that the lead remained unchanged in the hands of Kravstiv, Laxman and Priyadarshan.
Similar results were also witnessed on board 3 and 4 in the encounters between GM Kokarev and GM Luka Paichadze and the tie between GM Pavel Smirnov and Harsha Bharathakoti where the 'safety first' approach came to the fore.
Key Results of Round 8: GM Laxman RR 6.5 drew with GM Kravtsiv Martyn (6.5), GM Zubov Alexander (6) drew with IM Priyadharshan K. (6.5), GM Kokarev Dmitry (6) drew with GM Paichadze Luka (6), GM Smirnov Pavel (6) drew with Harsha Bharathakoti (6), GM Aleksandrov Aleksej (5) lost to IM Swapnil S. Dhopade (6), GM Mchedlishvili Mikheil (6) beat IM Karthikeyan P. (5), IM Nitin S. (6) beat GM Rahman Ziaur (5), IM Azaladze Shota (5.5) drew with Sanjay N. (5.5), GM Nguyen Duc Hoa (6) beat Vignesh Nr (5), GM Gagunashvili Merab (5.5) beat Siva Mahadevan (5).
