India's K Rathnakaran and P Nikhil Shyam, both International Masters, led a strong field of Grand Masters with 5 points each at the end of the fifth round in the 4th Mayor's Cup International Chess Tournament, in Mumbai, on Monday.
Trailing Rathnakaran (ELO 2386) and Shyam (ELO 2418) by half a point in the tournament conducted by Venus Chess Academy were nine others.
Shyam outsmarted compatriot K Priyadarshan (ELO 2376), also an IM, by opting for the Spanish opening, while Rathnakaran got the better of IM Himanshu Sharma (ELO 2421) in another all-India contest.
Priyadarshan replied to Shyam's Spanish opening by capturing his rival's central pawn with his knight without castling. After exchanging the queens on the 8th move, he broke his opponent's castle and started a strong attack on the king side with his pawn.
But thereafter Priyadarshan's position became very cramped while Shyam played brilliantly getting 2 passed pawns on the king side in the middle game and converted his advantage into a victory after 48 moves.
The game between Rathnakaran and Sharma started with Sicilian closed variation but later on changed to King's Indian Attack.
Playing with black pieces, Sharma captured the rival bishop with his knight and exposed Rathnakaran's king. But he could not exploit this advantage.
He also erred later. On the 23rd move, instead of attacking with a bishop he captured a pawn with a knight. Sharma made another wrong move on the 29th move which gave a passed pawn to Rathnakaran. He accepted his defeat in 38 moves.
The game between GM Enamul Hossain (ELO 2481) of Bangladesh and IM S Satyapragyan (ELO 2415) of India ended in a draw in 28 moves.
Top seeded GM Aleksey Aleksandrov (ELO 2618) of Belarus defeated GM R R Laxman (ELO 2451) in 50 moves in a game of Nimzo Indian defence in rook and pawn endings.
The top 10 results:
GM Hossain Enamul (BAN, 2481) 4.5 drew IM S Satyapragyan (IND, 2415) 4.5; IM K Rathnakaran (IND, 2386) 5 beat IM Himanshu Sharma (IND, 2421) 4; IM Shyam Nikil (IND, 2418) 5 beat IM K Priyadharshan (IND, 2376) 4; GM Aleksandrov Aleksej (BLR, 2618) 4.5 beat GM R R Laxman (IND, 2451) 3.5; IM S Ravichandran (IND, 2387) 3.5 lost to GM Kravtsiv Martyn (UKR, 2583) 4.5. GM Deviatkin Andrei (RUS, 2580) 4 drew IM Prasanna Raghuram Rao (IND, 2418) 4; GM Heberla Bartlomiej (POL, 2539) 4.5 beat IMAnwesh Upadhyaya (IND, 2408) 3.5; GM Abhijit Kunte (IND, 2528) 4.5 beat IM S Nitin (IND, 2387) 3.5; IM Sahaj Grover (IND, 2514) 3.5 lost to R Ankit Rajpara (IND, 2281) 4.5; IM G B Prakash (IND, 2332) 3.5 lost to GM Dzhumaev Marat (UZB, 2492) 4.5.
