Top seed Grandmaster Pendyla Harikrishna of Andhra Pradesh downed T S Ravi of PSPB in the 21st round to emerge joint leader in the 41st National 'A' chess championship in Kozikhode on Thursday.
Overnight leader Grandmaster Surya Shekhar Ganguly of PSPB and his team mate GM Sandipan Chanda now share the lead with Hari on 15.5 points with just two games remaining in the 23-round championship.
Grandmaster Abhijit Kunte of PSPB jointly holds the fourth place with GM Koneru Humpy of AP while giant-killer Tejas Bakre of Indian Airlines joined GM Dibyendu Barua in joint sixth spot.
Both Barua and Bakre have 13 points in their kitty and PSPB's IM Neelotpal Das and GM R B Ramesh follow them a full point behind.
Harikrishna was a class act yet again as he scored another crushing victory to catch up with Ganguly, who lost his sole lead for the first time since round nine. Playing white, Ravi could only pose a modest challenge with a rather meek opening choice.
The middle game witnessed Hari gaining the upper hand with well-crafted manoeuvres as Ravi fell under time pressure to make matters worse for himself.
Cornering the king, Harikrishna uncorked a brilliant queen sacrifice that eventually forced Ravi to part with three pieces that is usually a decisive material advantage. Ravi fought in vain till the 37th move before calling it a day, giving Hari his fifth straight victory in the championship.
Bakre scored his fourth victory on the trot and is now a firm contender for a berth in the Indian Olympiad team.
After scoring a lucky victory over Ganguly yesterday, Bakre crashed through the defences of R B Ramesh, who played black. Not counting on usual openings, Bakre opted for a surprising move order and succeeded in complicating matters on both flanks.
Ramesh went for the queenside castling but missed a simple combination that cost him a pawn. Bakre later launched an attack against black king and won in just 32 moves.
Ganguly played out a safe draw against GM Pravin Thipsay of Bank Sports Board. With white pieces, Thipsay could not do much after employing the exchange variation of the Ruy Lopez and the truce was signed in a level position.
Sandipan Chanda, who got a direct entry to the meet after failing to qualify in the last three years, got a step closer to play in the Olympiad after beating oldest competitor V Hariharan of Bank Sports Board. Chanda outplayed his opponent in a Sicilian defence game.
Debutant M Srinivasa Rao of AP scored an upset win over IM S Satyapragyan of Indian Airlines.
Humpy drew with Barua without much ado in a Semi Slav defence game of the day while British champion Abhijit Kunte fought relentlessly to hold an inferior position against Sriram Jha of LIC.
Results (round 21): T S Ravi (7.5) lost to P Harikrishna (15.5), S Satyapragyan (8) lost to M Srinivasa Rao (3.5), Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury (11) drew M R Venkatesh (11), Neelotpal Das (12) lost to Vishal Sareen (7.5); Tejas Bakre (13) beat R B Ramesh (12), Praveen Thipsay (10.5) S S Ganguly (15.5), Arghyadip Das (8) drew S Kidambi (11.5), V Hariharan (4) lost to Sandipan Chanda (15.5), Koneru Humpy (14) drew Dibyendu Barua (13), Sriram Jha (8) drew Abhijit Kunte (14), Prathamesh Mokal (10) drew Roktim Bandyopadhyay (10).