Grandmaster and World junior champion Abhijeet Gupta scored a thumping victory over tournament leader Tiger Hillarp Persson of Sweden in the sixth round of 'C' group in the Corus International chess tournament in Wijk Aan Zee, The Netherlands.
After beating one of the co-leaders, Manuel Bosboom, in the previous round, Abhijeet was a class act yet again as he outplayed Persson, who played white.
The Swede spent a lot of time in the early stages of a Ggrunfeld defense by Abhijeet and that turned out to be his waterloo as the Bhilwara-based Indian struck on the first opportunity.
It was a hugely complicated queen-less middle game wherein Abhijeet trapped white's knight on the edge of the board and then picked an exchange at will to force matters after 44 moves.
Top seed Grandmaster Wesley So of Philippines emerged the new leader after outplaying GM Manuel Leon Hoyos of Mexico.
Wesley took his tally to 4.5 points out of a possible six and is now trailed by Persson on four points. Abhijeet is likely to be in joint third or sole fourth with 3.5 points but that will be confirmed only after all the results come out in the sixth round of this 14-player round robin tournament.
World junior girls' champion D Harika remained in hunt for her Grandmaster norm after playing out a draw with Ali Betalzadeh of Holland.
It was a Berlin defense by Harika that proved impregnable and after routine exchanges the players decided to sign the peace treaty.
Some results of Round 6:
Group 'B' Round 6: Dimitri Reinderman (Ned, 2.5) lost to Nigel Short (Eng, 4); Erwin L'Ami (Ned, 2) lost to Alexander Motylev (Rus, 3.5).
Group 'C': Tiger Hillarp Persson (Swe, 4) lost to Abhijeet Gupta (Ind, 3.5); Wesley So (Phi, 4.5) beat Manuel Leon Hoyos (Mex, 2); Ali Bitalzadeh (Ned, 3) drew with D Harika (Ind, 3).