Grandmaster Abhijit Kunte suffered a defeat at the hands of Zhang Zhong of China but it turned out to be a satisfying day of other Indian norm hopefuls in the fourth round of the 7th Dubai International open Chess championship.
Amongst the norm hopefuls, double Women Grandmaster norm holder Eesha Karavade was the biggest gainer as she put it across Alexander Areshchenko of Ukraine in a tactical melee to reach 3 points from possible four.
Also coming out good was unassuming G Balaji, who proved a tough customer for compatriot IM S Kidambi, and youngsters Parimarjan Negi and Abhijeet Gupta, who held much higher ranked opponents Wang Yue of China and Yuriy Kuzubov of Ukraine respectively to creditable draws.
Meanwhile, Georgi Kacheishvili emerged as sole leader with a cent per cent score after four rounds following his easy triumph over compatriot Merab Gagunashvili.
With five rounds to come in this US$ 40000 prize money event, he is now followed by top seed Alexander Motylev of Russia, Aleksej Aleksandrov of Belarus and Zhong who all have 3.5 points apiece while a pack of 33 hopefuls including Indian GMs Sandipan Chanda and Koneru Humpy are breathing down their necks with 3 points apiece.
Amongst other Indians in the fray IM Lanka Ravi drew with Iranian Ghaem Maghami Ehsan without much ado. Playing the French defence as black, Ravi forced truce in just 19 moves.
IM Rahul Shetty however succumbed to Russian GM Mikhail Kobalia who won in interesting duel in 38 moves. Also on the receiving end was GM R B Ramesh who continued to struggle with his form and was tamed by Al Qudaimi Basheer.