Lalit Babu, Neelotpal join leaders at Mumbai GM chess meet

Lalit Babu and Neelotpal Das moved into joint lead with Gharibyan Mamikon in the AurionPro GM Chess Tournament, while Aansh Nerurkar and Madhesh Kumar lead the junior section after round 8

Hyderabad: Indian Grandmasters M R Lalit Babu and Neelotpal Das scored impressive victories in the eighth round to jump into a joint three-player lead, along with GM Gharibyan Mamikon, in the AurionPro Mumbai International Grandmaster Chess Tournament at the World Trade Centre in Mumbai on Tuesday.

While Lalit Babu defeated GM Alexei Fedorov with White pieces in 39 moves, Neelotpal got the better of IM Arsen Davtyan.

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Gharibyan Mamikon delivered a major upset, defeating tournament leader GM Aleksej Aleksandrov with the Black pieces to stake his claim among the leaders, with 7 points from 8 matches.

Nine players — including GM Aleksandrov, GM Levan Pantsulaia, GM Manuel Petrosyan, GM Deepan Chakkravarthy, and GM Nguyen Duc Hoa — are right behind with 6.5/8.

In the junior section, FM Aansh Nerurkar bounced back with a powerful win over CM Madhvendra Sharma, while CM Madhesh Kumar was held to a draw by Advik Agrawal. Both Aansh and Madhesh now lead jointly with 7/8 points.

Hot on their heels are CM Vyom Malhotra, Advik Agrawal, and Shaunak Badole, all tied with 6.5/8.