Nitin retains top spot after eighth round

Chennai: International Master Nitin Senthilvel (7.5) maintained his one-point lead after the eighth round of the 13th Chennai Open International Grandmaster tournament here on Friday. Nitin held top seed Grandmaster Savchenko Boris (Russia) to a draw in the top board. The encounter, which lasted 68 moves, saw both players give it their all before choosing to split the points. Following the leader a full point behind at 6.5 points are GMs Boris, Fedorov Alexei (Belarus), Baghdasaryan Vahe (Armenia), Aronyak Ghosh, Konguvel Ponnuswamy, Gusain Himal, Prasannaa S, Daakshin Arun and R Siddharth (all from India). In the 9th round, Nitin will be up against IM Siddharth who defeated Samriddha Ghosh in round 8. In the upsets of the day, IM P Konguvel defeated Vietnamese Grandmaster Tran Tuan Minh, while Candidate Master Daakshin Arun scored over fellow Indian Grandmaster P Karthikeyan.