Swapnil Dhopade in sole lead in Grandmaster Chess

CHENNAI: Triple Grandmaster Norm holder Swapnil Dhopade defeated GM Mozharov Mikhail of Russia in the seventh round to move into the sole lead with 6.5 points in the 7th Chennai International Open Grandmaster Chess Tournament at Nehru Stadium today.

Maharashtra's Swapnil is followed by International Master Cruz Jonathan of Peru at 6.0 points. Seven players -- Dzhumaev Mart (Uzbekistan), Ramnath Bhuvanesh R (India), Popov Ivan (Russia), Cruz Cristhian (Peru), Mozharov Mikhail (Russia), Karthikeyan Murali (India) and Gasanov Eldar (Ukraine) -- share the third spot with 5.5 points.

Three rounds remain to be played in the ten round Swiss event.

The top board Grunfeld game between Swapnil and Mozharov Mikhail had all the thrills, spills and excitement loaded to it. Mozharov sacrificed a pawn as early as the seventh move, but found Swapnil a tough nut to crack.

Queens were off the board by the 21st move, while a series of exchanges left Mozharov a pawn down in an opposite colored bishop ending.

In the fourth hour of play, Mozharov missed Swapnil's stunning 37.Bf7 which effectively decided the game in favor of the Indian. With an ELO 2765 performance Swapnil stands to gain 23 rating points, so far.