Continuing with his late found form, Grandmaster Krishnan Sasikiran beat former world junior champion Peter Acs in the ninth and penultimate round of the third Marx Gyorgy Memorial Grandmasters chess tournament in Paks, Hungary, on Wednesday.
Striking back with vengeance after a disastrous loss against Sasikiran, Grandmaster Zoltan Almasi of Hungary emerged the sole leader after beating 74-year-old Viktor Korchnoi of Switzerland.
For the second day running, Hungarian Ferenc Berkes also emerged winner, accounting for top seed Emil Sutovsky of Israel.
With just one round remaining in the category-15 double round-robin tournament, Almasi took his tally to six points out of a possible nine and is now trailed by Korchnoi, who is half a point behind.
Sasikiran kept his third spot intact on five points with Berkes close behind on 4.5. Sutovsky and Acs remained on three points each and are now set to fill up the last two slots in the six-player event.
In the final round game, Almasi is set to play Acs as white. He needs just a draw to finish-joint first.
The fight for the second place has in fact heated up now with Korchnoi, who started off brilliantly, losing steam towards the end.
The Swiss has to tackle a dangerous Sutolvsky, who has black in his last game, while Sasikrian will play with white against Berkes.
Winning with black pieces was certainly not an easy task at the highest level and Sasikiran accomplished that feat for the second straight day.
Playing the Tchigorin variation in the Ruy Lopez, the Indian solved his opening problems even as Acs got some pieces rolling first in the center, and then for a brief period on the queenside.
However, the Hungarian misjudged the position arising after loss of a pawn and Sasikiran quickly got in to the groove and guided his forces to defend the king side.
Acs had little hopes left after Sasikiran exchanged the queens to reach an opposite colour Bishops endgame. Acs resigned when faced with further loss of material.
Almasi played with a lot of patience to beat Korchnoi in a keenly-contested game.
Playing the black side of a Hedgehog set up, Almasi had things under control in the middle game when Korchnoi overestimated his chances.
The Hungarian sacrificed an exchange for positional compensation and another error by Korchnoi resulted in a double passed pawn for black in the middle of the board.
After that the result of the game was never in doubt and Almasi wrapped the issue after 47 moves.
Berkes put up an inspired performance to beat Sutovsky, who played the black side of a Grunfeld defense.
The middle game ensued with a slight advantage to white and Berkes nurtured it well to win a pawn on the queenside.
The Israeli did not quite get any counter play thereafter as Berkes' rooks occupied the seventh rank creating irresistible threats.
The 19-year old Hungarian knocked down all black pawns on the queen side and romped home in 49 moves.
Results (Round 9): Peter Acs (Hun, 3) lost to Krishnan Sasikiran (Ind, 5); Viktor Korchnoi (Sui, 5.5) lost to Zoltan Almasi (Hun, 6); Ferenc Berkes (Hun, 4.5) beat Emil Sutovsky (Isr, 3).
The moves:
Peter Acs vs Krishnan Sasikiran
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Be7 6. Re1 b5 7. Bb3 d6 8. c3 O-O 9. h3 Na5 10. Bc2 c5 11. d4 Qc7 12. Nbd2 cxd4 13. cxd4 Nc6 14. Nb3 a5 15. Be3 a4 16. Nbd2 Bd7 17. Rc1 Rac8 18. Nb1 Qb8 19. Nc3 Rfe8 20. Bb1 h6 21. Qd3 exd4 22. Bxd4 Nxd4 23. Nxd4 g6 24. Rcd1 b4 25. Nd5 Nxd5 26. exd5 Bf6 27. Ne6 Re7 28. Qg3 Be8 29. Nf4 Qb7 30. Nd3 Rxe1+ 31. Rxe1 Qxd5 32. Qf4 Bc6 33. Qg4 Rb8 34. Rd1 Qg5 35. b3 axb3 36. axb3 Bc3 37. Nf4 Re8 38. Bc2 Qxg4 39. hxg4 Bb7 40. Nd5 Bxd5 41. Rxd5 Re1+ 42. Kh2 Be5+ white resigned.