Former Commonwealth Champion Pentyala Harikrishna continued his demolition act and outclassed compatriot Grandmaster Sandipan Chanda in the seventh round of the Gibtelecom Masters International Open Chess tournament at Gibraltar.
Registering his sixth straight victory after losing in the first round, Harikrishna emerged as the sole leader with six points and is now half a point adrift of nearest rivals top seed Nigel Short of England and Indian National champion Surya Shekhar Ganguly.
A pack of five players -- British Champion Abhijit Kunte, Tejas Bakre, Chanda and Russian duo of Vladimir Epishin and second seed Alexei Dreev -- follow these three with five points from seven games.
Just three more rounds remain in the tournament played under the 100 minutes time control for the whole game with an increment of one minute after every move is made.
Overall, the Indian men had yet another day to remember. The only loser was Chanda who went down after an intense battle against Harikrishna, while Bakre moved within striking distance of his final GM norm after beating GM Ernesto Inarkiev of Russia with black pieces.
Ganguly was back in form as he crushed highly rated GM Jonathan Speelman of England. Settling for draws were GM Abhijit Kunte, who quickly drew with GM Nigel Davies of England, and Dibyendu Barua who failed do much against the solid play of German Till Wipperman.
Amongst the Indian women, S Vijayalakshmi got back to winning ways beating Abdela Felloussi of Morroco while Swati Ghate lost to GM Ruslan Pogorelov of Russia. Nisha Mohota suffered another reversal at the hands of Oystein Fossum of Norway and S Meenakshi went down to Angelis Del Rio of Spain. Kruttika Nadig gathered a half point against Scot Helen Miligen.
It was Harikrishna's day yet again as he crushed Chanda in all departments of the game. The young Indian has now set up a clash with Nigel Short in the eighth round in a crucial game with black pieces.
The Englishman goes into the match as favourite after scoring an easy victory over Harikrishna in the recent Commonwealth championships at Mumbai to win the title.
Playing white against Chanda, Harikrishna employed the Fianchetto variation against the King's Indian and the game took a tactical course in the middle game. Sandipan, however, erred calculating a long variation and ended up losing an exchange.
Soon Harikrishna returned the extra material to move to a favourable rook and knight endgame before delivering the decisive blow on the 43rd move.
After losing to Short in the previous round, Ganguly got into the groove again and emerged as the better player against Speelman with black.
It was a Caro Kann defence where the Englishman could not really solve his opening problems in one of the main variations. Ganguly was apt in seizing the initiative and attacked black's king violently to romp home in just 31 moves.
Bakre was at his tactical best beating Inakiev who employed the Richter Rauzer attack against the Sicilian Classical with his white pieces.
Pouncing on a middle game opportunity, Bakre turned the tide decisively in his favour by uncorking a brilliant sequence of moves that ripped apart white's king. Inarkev ended up losing an exchange and the resulting endgame was easy for Bakre. The game lasted 43 moves.
Short drew with Dreev while Epishin defeated Antoanta Stefanov of Bulgaria in other important games of the day.
Important results round 7 (Indians unless specified):
P Harikrishna (6) beat Sandipan Chanda (5); Alexei Dreev (5, Rus) drew with Nigel Short (5.5, Eng); Surya Shekhar Ganguly (5.5) beat Jonathan Speelman (4.5, Eng); Nigel Davies (4.5, Eng) drew with Abhijit Kunte (5); Vladimir Epishin (5, Rus) beat Antoanta Stefanova (4, Bul); Ernesto Inarkiev (4, Rus) lost to Tejas Bakre (5); Mark Hebden (4.5, Eng) drew with Peter Wells (4, Eng); John Emms (4.5, Eng) drew with Joseph Gallagher (4.5, Sui); Bogdan Lalic (4.5, Eng) drew with Tatiana Vasilevich (4.5, Ukr); Bojan Vuckovic (4.5, Ser) beat Sergei Beshukov (4.5, Rus); Sarunas Sulskis (4, Ltu) drew with Jovanka Houska (4, Eng); Till Wipperman (4, Ger) drew with Dibyendu Barua (4); Mohamad Al Sayed (3.5, Qat) lost to Jonathan Rowson (4.5, Sco); Paul Motwani (4.5, Sco) beat David Howell (3.5, Eng); Juan Bellon Lopez (3.5, Esp) lost to Murray Chandler (4.5, Eng); Angelis Del Rio (4, Esp) beat S Meenakshi (3); Ruslan Pogorelov (3, Rus) beat Swati Ghate (3); S Vijayalakshmi (4) beat Abdela Felloussi (3, Mor); Nisha Mohota (3) lost to Oystein Fossum (3.5, Nor); Kruttika Nadig (3) drew with Helen Milligan (3, Sco).