Kurnosov, Kuzubov, Gupta share lead

Three Grandmasters _ Igor Kurnosov (Russia), Yuriy Kuzubov (Ukraine) and Abhijeet Gupta (India) shared the lead with six points each at the end of seventh round of the 1st SCS International Open GM Chess Tournament at hostel Swosti Plaza here on Thursday.
Second seed Kurnosov spoiled the Indian party by outplaying International Master K Rathnakaran, who earlier took the sole lead with a stunning win over Ukraine Grandmaster Georgy Timoshenko in the sixth round.
Third seed Kuzubov outwitted Russia GM Andrey Rychagov, while sixth seed Gupta beat compatriot MR Lalith Babu. As many as 20 players, including top seed Sergei Tiviakov, shared the second place with 5.5 points apiece.
Holland Grandmaster Tiviakov was forced to split point in both the rounds of the day by Russia GM Sergey Vokarev and Bangladesh GM Enamul Hossain respectively.
Host Orissa continued to experience mixed luck with four players (Anwesh Upadhyaya, Soumya Ranjan Mishra, Kiran Manisha Mohanty and Mohammad Ashraf) leading the home challenge with five points each. But International Masters Swayangsu Satyapragyan and Sekhar Chandra Sahu struggled to live up their reputation as they followed behind with 4.5 points apiece.
Upadhyaya and Mishra registered a creditable draws in the seventh round against IM Sriram Jha and GM Tejas Bakre. WIM Kiran Manisha fought a marathon battle before beating R Premnath. Ashraf also played well to beat GA Stany.
RESULTS (Round 7):
Top 25 boards: K Rathnakaran (Ind, 5.5) lost to Igor Kurnosov (Rus, 6), Sergei Tiviakov (Ned, 5.5) drew with Enamul Hossain (Ban, 5.5), Yuriy Kuzubov (Ukr, 6) bt Andrey Rychagov (Rus, 5), Deep Sengupta (Ind, 5.5) drew with Evgeny Vorobiov (Rus, 5.5), MR Lalith Babu (Ind, 5) lost to Abhijeet Gupta (Ind, 6), Serikbay Temirbayev (Kaz, 5.5) drew with Alexander Zubarev (Ukr, 5.5), Roaman Ovetchkin (Rus, 5.5) drew with Sergey Vokarev (Rus, 5.5), SP Sethuraman (Ind, 5.5) drew with Yuri Drozdovskij (Ukr, 5.5), Srinath Narayanan (Ind, 5) drew wtih Georgy Timoshenko (Ukr, 5), Yaroslav Zinchenko (Ukr, 5.5) bt Suvrajit Saha (Ind, 4.5), Anuar Ismagambetov (Kaz, 5.5) bt Debasish Das (Ind, Ori, 4.5), Nikil Shyam (Ind, 5.5) bt RR Laxman (Ind, 4.5), N Sudhakar Babu (Ind, 5) drew with Neelotpal Das (Ind, 5), Rustam Khusnutdinov (Kaz, 5.5) bt Shashikant Kutwal (Ind, 4.5), Atanu Lahiri (Ind, 5) drew with Simutowe Amon (Zam, 5), Alexander Fominyh (Rus, 4.5) lost to Swapnil S Dhopade (Ind, 5.5), Aminul K Islam (Ban, 5) drew with B Adhiban (Ind, 5), Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury (Ind, 5.5) bt Joydeep Dutta (Ind, 4.5), Anwesh Upadhyaya (Ind, Ori, 5) drew with Sriram Jha (Ind, 5), Tejas Bakre (Ind, 5) drew with Soumya Ranjan Mishra (Ind, Ori, 5), Ram S Krishnan (Ind, 4.5) lost to MR Venkatesh (Ind, 5.5), Ponnuswamy Konguvel (Ind, 5.5) bt Gurpreet Pal Singh (Ind, 4.5), Meenakshi Subbaraman (Ind, 5) drew with Niaz Murshed (Ban, 5), Bitan Banerjee (Ind, 5) drew with PDS Girinath (Ind, 5), Shreyansh Daklia Jain (Ind, 4.5) lost to Saptarshi Roy (Ind, 5.5).
Other Orissa results: Sekhar Chandra Sahu (4.5) drew with Swayangsu Satyapragyan (Ind, Ori, 4.5), Pabitra Mohan Mohanty (4) lost to MS Thejkumar (Ind, 5), Utkal Ranjan Sahoo (4.5) drew with Himanshu Sharma (Ind, 4.5), Kiran Manisha Mohanty (5) bt R Premnath (Ind, 4), Rajendra Kumar Sahu (4) lost to Akash Thakur (Ind, 5), Mohammad Ashraf (5) bt GA Stany (Ind, 4), Debasis Chakrabarty (3.5) lost to V Devaki Prasad (Ind, 4.5), Krishna Soni (4.5) bt P Saravana Krishnan (Ind, 3.5), Manoj Kumar Panigrahi (4.5) bt Devangi Patankar (Ind, 3.5), GC Mohapatra (3.5) lost to Sahaj Grover (Ind, 4.5), Sidhant Mohapatra (4) drew with Ahmed Mahtabuddin (Ban, 4), Biswajeet Nayak (4.5) bt Prantik Roy (Ind, 3.5), Sunyasakta Satpathy (3.5) lost to GV Sai Krishna (Ind, 4.5), Padmini Rout (4) bt Sumit Kumar Banerjee (Ind, Ori, 3), Swayams Mishra (4) bt Rajesh Kumar Sharma (Ind, 3).
RESULTS (Round 6):
Top 25 boards: Sergey Vokarev (Rus, 5)dew with Sergei Tiviakov (Ned, 5), Igor Kurnosov (Rus, 5) drew with Deep Sengupta (Ind, 5), Evgeny Vorobiov (Rus, 5) drew with MR Lalith Babu (Ind, 5), Georgy Timoshenko (Ukr, 4.5) lost to K Rathnakaran (Ind, 5.5), Enamul Hossain (Ban, 5) drew with SP Sethuranam (Ind, 5), Swayangsu Satyapragyan (4) lost to Yuriy Kuzubov (Ukr, 5), Abhijeet Gupta (Ind, 5) bt Arghyadip Das (Ind, 4), Alexander Zubarev (Ukr, 5) bt Somak Palit (Ind, 4), MS Thejkumar (Ind, 4) lost to Roman Ovetchkin (Rus, 5), Niaz Murshed (Ban, 4.5) drew with Yaroslav Zinchenko (Ukr, 4.5), Andrey Rychagov (Rus, 5) bt V Saravanan (Ind, 4), PDS Girinath (Ind, 4.5) drew with Rustam Khusnutdinov (Kaz, 4.5), Amon Simutowe (Zam, 4.5) drew with P Nikil Shyam (Ind, 4.5), B Adhiban (Ind, 4.5) drew with N Sudhakar Babu (Ind, 4.5), Srinath Narayanan (Ind, 4.5) drew with Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury (Ind, 4.5), BS Shivananda (Ind, 4) lost to Serikbay Temirbayed (Kaz, 5), Sriram Jha (Ind, 4.5) drew with Atanu Lahiri (Ind, 4.5), Sashikant Kutwal (Ind, 4.5) drew with Tejas Bakre (Ind, 4.5), MR Venkatesh (4.5) drew with Anwesh Upadhyaya (Ind, Ori, 4.5), Swapnil S Dhopade (Ind, 4.5) drew with Ponnuswamy Konguvel (Ind, 4.5), Rajendra Kumar Sahu (Ind, Ori, 4) lost to Anuar Ismagambetov (Kaz, 4.5), Yuri Drozdovskij (Ukr, 4.5) bt Anup Deshmukh (Ind, 3.5), RR Laxman (Ind, 4.5) bt R Arun Karthik (3.5), Neelotpal Das (Ind, 4.5) bt GB Joshi (Ind, 3.5), V Vishnu Prasanna (Ind, 3.5) lost to Alexander Fominyh (Rus, 4.5).
 Other Orissa results: Pabitra Mohan Mohanty (4) drew with K Priyadarshan (Ind, 4), Utkal Ranjan Sahoo (4) drew with Minhazuddin Ahmed (Ban, 4), Debasish Das (4.5) bt ML Abhilash Reddy (Ind, 3.5), Soumya Ranjan Mishra (4.5) bt Biswajeet Nayak (Ind, Ori, 3.5), Sunyasakta Satpathy (3.5) lost to Bitan Banerjee (Ind, 4.5), Subhransu Mohan Satpathy (3) lost to Matta Vinay Kumar (Ind, 4), Sekhar Chandra Sahu 4) bt Hamal Manish (Nep, 3), KD Pillai (3) lost to Debraj Chatterjee (Ind, 4), Manoj Kumar Panigrahi (3.5) drew with Sidhant Mohapatra (Ind, Ori, 3.5), Swayams Mishra (3) lost to Ram Gupta (Ind, 4), Kiran Manisha Mohanty (4) bt Atishay Ajmera (Ind, 3), Rakesh Kumar Nayak (3) lost to Amrutha Mokal (Ind, 4), Mohammad Ashraf (4) bt Hasan Mohammad Emam (Ban, 3), Padmini Rout (3) drew with N Venu Madhav (Ind, 3), Sanket Sagar Dash (2.5) lost to Syed Nasir Ali (Ind, 3.5), GC Mohapatra (3.5) bt Anurag Jaiswal (Ind, 2.5), Ranjan Mohanty (2.5) lost to Rajib Dhar (Ind, 3.5), Debasis Chakrabarty (3.5) bt Ashutosh Mohapatra (Ind, Ori, 2.5).