Maiden Grandmaster norm for young gun G Rohit

New Delhi, Jan 20 (UNI) For the third time in the event, International Master G Rohit beat a Grandmaster to continue his destructive form with a victory over Grandmaster Saidali Iuldachev of Uzbekistan to post his maiden Grandmaster norm in the fifth Parsvnath International Open chess tournament.

After humbling national Champion Surya Shekhar Ganguly and GM Dibyendu Barua earlier, the Hyderabadi is now assured of his maiden Grandmaster norm irrespective of the result of the penultimate round game.

Two other youngsters, International Masters Abhijeet Gupta and S Arun Prasad played out easy draws and are on 6.5 points each.

At the top board Russian Alexey Dreev, the favourite to win the title, dispalyed sheer class to beat GM Pravin Thipsay from the white side of a King's Indian defense game and pocketed the full point after 76 moves.

With two rounds remaining Dreev, Rohit and Ahmed Adly of Egypt now share the lead on 7 points each with as many as 7 players tantalisingly close to them on 6.5 points apiece including Deepan, Neelotpal, M R Venkatesh, B Adhiban and GM Ziaur Rahman of Bangladesh.

UNI