Mumbai, June 18 (IANS) International Master (IM) Harsh Suresh held leader, GM Iniyan Pa to a draw in the 8th round but this may be just a temporary setback, as the National champion still leads the rest of the field by a point and needs only a draw in the final round to emerge champion in the Master's Section of the Global Chess Festival, being played at the World Trade Centre in Mumbai.

The favourites fumbled and stumbled in the other two categories too. Overnight sole leader Viresh Sharnarthi, who was on a roll in the Challengers Category, was shocked by a lower-rated player, Ashirwad Swain of Orissa, and dropped down to third place with 6 others, all having scored 6.5 points. Nithin Babu also stunned higher-rated FM Arun Kataria, with both jointly leading this Category with 7 points each.

Iniyan, with 7, holds on to a full-point lead over next-placed Boris Savchenko. Harsh Suresh, Aakash Sharadchandra Dalvi, Apoorv Kamble, and Ajay Santosh Parvathareddy are bunched behind with 5.5 points each.

Madhvendra Pratap Sharma continued his dominance by defeating Vinayak Koleru to retain his one-point lead, having tallied 7.5 points. A draw in the last 9th round is all he needs to be a clear-cut winner of the Junior Masters. Ankit Das, Balanandan Ayappan, and A Amanlal have all scored 6.5 points and have a mathematical chance in case they win their games, and Madhvendra ends on the losing side.

Apart from the cash prizes, at stake are norms, and most importantly, the winners of this edition of the Challengers and Juniors Category directly qualify for next year’s edition of the elite Masters Category. This will make the last round more exciting as the players in contention will go all out for the top place.

In other notable results, WIM Oshini Gunawardhana Devindya, needing 1.5 points from the last two games to garner a WGM norm, suffered a heartbreaking loss against IM Vedant Panesar. Boris Savchenko, after a loss to Inayan, has covered plenty of lost ground and has a mathematical chance to have a crack at the title.

Iniyan adopted the Sicilian defence against Harsh Suresh, and the players castled on opposite sides. Harsh castled on the queenside and promptly turned aggressive on the King-side. At first, there were indications that sparks may fly on this board, but despite the aggressive approach by Harsh, the whole game never went beyond a tiny edge for White. The players split the point on the 40th turn with a rook and three pawns on either side.

Soham Kamotra, the IM from Jammu and Kashmir, was error-prone in a Queen’s Gambit game against Boris Savchenko. A dubious decision to castle on the Queen-side proved disastrous as Savchenko’s Queen and knight infiltrated his territory. Kamotra, faced with the loss of a bishop to a checkmate, resigned on the 24th turn.

In the last round, Iniyan will fight it out against Ajay Santhosh Parvathareddy.

Sharnathi, after some superb play in the first seven rounds, was on the defensive after opting for the Sicilian Defence against Ashirwad Swain. Swain had castled on the Queen's side, and Sharnathi kept his King in the centre. Swain broke through in the centre and swapped queens after winning a pawn. That extra pawn proved sufficient for Swain to pocket the point after 75 long moves.

Swain and Nithin Babu are pitted against each other in the final round, and a victory for either would mean the title.

In a Four-Knights game. Madhvendra preferred to play solidly or opted for a very cautious approach. He decided to go against a bishop sacrifice on the 23rd turn, thus missing an early chance for victory. He initiated the exchange of queens to hold a tiny edge and then slowly and steadily exchanged the remaining pieces to garner a pawn and win after 67 moves.

Results:

Harsh, Suresh (1/2) draw Iniyan, Pa (1/2)

Soham, Kamotra (0) lost to Savchenko, Boris (1)

Aakash Sharadchandra, Dalvi (1/2) draw Apoorv, Kamble (1/2)

Ajay, Santhosh Parvathareddy (1) beat Matyakubov, Miraziz (0)

Sammed Jaykumar, Shete (1/2) draw Paichadze, Luka (1/2)

Ayush, Sharma (1/2) draw Nitish, Belurkar (1/2)

Gochelashvili, David (1/2) draw Gupta, Abhijeet (1/2)

--IANS

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