Chennai Grandmaster S.P. Sethuraman defeated M. Kunal and moved in shared lead with 5.0 points after the fifth round of the Apollo Engineering College Commonwealth Chess Championships here on Sunday.
Sharing the lead at 5.0 points with Sethuraman were Grandmaster duo Oleksienko Mikhailo (Ukraine) and M.R. Lalith Babu (India).
Half a point behind the leaders at 4.5 points were top seed Sergei Tiviakov (the Netherlands), Adly Ahmed (Egypt), Lintchevski Daniil (Russia), Marat Dzhumaev (Uzbekistan), M.R. Venkatesh, P. Karthikeyan, Sundararajan Kidambi, Akshayraj Kore, R. Arun Karthik, Ankit R. Rajpara and Himanshu Sharma (all-India).
International Master Norm holder Arun Karthik put it across higher seed I.M. Shyam Nikil, while promising Tamil Nadu youngster from Kodaikanal, M.V. Lakshmi Narayanan upset International Master and Olympiad player Oliver Dimakiling of the Philipines in another interesting battle.
Earlier, in the morning session, Sethuraman overcame Woman Grandmaster Nisha Mohota in an interesting game arising from Ruy Lopez opening.
A complicated middle game saw Sethuraman coming out better in complications, as Nisha missed her way and lost a piece and the game after 55 moves.
The results (Indians, unless specified):
Round 5: Rolando Nolte (Phi) 4 lost to Oleksienko Mikhailo (Ukr) 5, P. Karthikeyan 4.5 drew with Marat Dzhumaev (Uzb) 4.5, M.R. Lalith Babu 5 bt Kathmale Sameer 4, M. Kunal 4 lost to S.P. Sethuraman 5, Ram S. Krishnan 4.5 drew with S. Arun Prasad 4.5, Akshat Khamparia 3.5 lost to Sergei Tiviakov (Ned) 4.5, Adly Ahmed (Egy) 4.5 bt Garcia Jan Emmanuel (Phi) 3.5, Ravichandran Siddharth 4 drew with B. Adhiban 4, Lintchevski Daniil (Rus) 4.5 bt Senador Emmanuel (Phi) 3.5, Mark Paragua (Phi) 4 drew with Sayantan Das 4, M.R. Venkatesh 4.5 bt V.R. Aravindh Chithambaram 3.5, S. Nitin 4 drew with J. Deepan Chakkravarthy 4, Harsha Bharathakoti 3 lost to Alexander Fominyh (Rus) 4, Dimakiling Oliver (Phi) 3 lost to M.V. Lakshmi Narayanan 4.
Round 4: Emmanuel Senador (Phi) 3.5 drew with Adly Ahmed (Egy) 3.5, B. Adhiban 3.5 drew with S. Nitin 3.5, Oleksienko Mikhailo (Ukr) 4 bt Mary Ann Gomes 3, Marat Dzhumaev (Uzb) 4 bt V.A.V. Rajesh 3, C.R.G. Krishna 3 lost to M.R. Lalith Babu 4, S.P. Sethuraman 4 bt Nisha Mohota 3, S. Arun Prasad 4 bt Ikeda Junta (Aus) 3, J. Deepan Chakkravarthy 3.5 drew with R. Arun Karthik 3.5, V.R. Aravindh Chithambaram 3.5 drew with Neelotpal Das 3.5, Rolando Nolte (Phi) 4 bt G.B. Prakash 3, Narayanan Srinath 3 lost to Ram S. Krishnan 4, D.B.C. Prasad 3 lost to Mark Paragua (Phi) 3.5, Sergei Tiviakov (Ned) 3.5 bt K. Praneeth Surya 2.5, Utkal Ranjan Sahoo 2.5 lost to Daniil Lintchevski (Rus) 3.5.