Five share lead after round 6 at Aurionpro Chess Tournament

Five players are tied at 5.5 points after Round 6 in the Aurionpro International Grandmaster and Junior Chess Tournament, with intense competition unfolding across both the open and under-13 sections

Hyderabad: Overnight leaders GM Lalit Babu (India) and IM Arsen Davtyan (Armenia) could gain no supremacy over each other and ended their match in a balanced draw, leaving the door open for others to climb into the lead after Round 6 of the Rs 40 lakh prize money Aurionpro International Grandmaster and Junior Chess Tournament at the World Trade Centre in Mumbai on Sunday.

After six rounds, five players are tied at 5.5/6, setting up a thrilling race to the finish.

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In one of the biggest upsets of the tournament, IM Nayaka Buddhidharma (Indonesia) held top seed GM Levan Pantsulaia (Georgia) to a well-earned draw.

In other matches, GM Manuel Petrosyan (Armenia) took full advantage, winning a fine game with the white pieces against Alexander Slizhevsky (Russia), while GM Aleksej Aleksandrov (Belarus) also made a statement by defeating GM Luka Paichadze (Georgia) in convincing fashion.

In the under-13 section, both FM Aansh Nandan Nerurkar and CM Madhesh Kumar maintained their unbeaten records after a hard-fought draw on the top board. They continue to share the lead with 5.5/6 points apiece.

A tight chase pack of six players on 5.0/6 — including CM Madhvendra Sharma, Shaunak Badole, Aadik Lenin, Adhiraj Mitra, Advik Agrawal, and Ramanuja Mishra — keeps the competition fierce heading into the final three rounds.