Abhijeet Gupta holds Gelfand

From Our Chess Correspondent

Gibraltar, Feb 1 (PTI) Grandmaster and former world junior champion Abhijeet Gupta continued with his fine run and held 2012 World Championship finalist Boris Gelfand to a draw in the ninth and penultimate round of Gibraltar Masters now underway here.

Abhijeet took his tally to a fine 6.5 points out of a possible nine in the super-open and will look forward to an improved performance in the final round game.

Delhi youngster Prithu Gupta made his maiden Grandmaster norm when he won with black pieces against Johan Sebastian of Norway. The 13-year old had already made his final international master norm with a round to spare and the victory in the penultimate round served as the perfect bonus for the Indian.

Raunak Sadhwani was the other teenager who went on to make his second International Master norm after drawing with Grandmaster Erik Blomqvist. Sadhwani will now need one more before he can claim the IM title.

For Gupta, it was a difficult game as he landed in initial troubles. However, a timely exchange sacrifice ensured enough counterplay and Gelfand decided against undue risk.

It's a five-way tie at the top and Gupta stands joint sixth at this point. The last round will determine the course of action for top players here.

Important and Indian results round 9 (Indians unless specified): Daniil Dubov (Rus, 7) drew with Maxime Vachier- Lagrave (Fra, 7); Hikaru Nakamura (Usa, 7) drew with Richard Rapport (Hun, 7); Levon Aronian (Arm, 7) beat S P Sethuraman (6); Boris Gelfand (Isr, 6.5) drew with Abhijeet Gupta (6.5); Sandipan Chanda (6) drew with Nihal Sarin (6); Henderson De La Fuente Lance (Esp, 6) drew with S L Narayanan (6); Iturrizaga Bonelli Eduardo (Ven, 5) lost to Debashis Das (6); R Praggnanandhaa (5.5) drew with Marin Bosiocic (Ger, 5.5); Shardul Gagare (5.5) drew with Benjamin Gledura (Hun, 5.5); Evgeny Zanan (Rus, 5.5) drew with G N Gopal (5.5); Prasanna Raghuram Rao (5.5) drew with Anna Muzychuk (Ukr, 5.5); M R Venkatesh (5.5) drew with Kateryna Lagno (Rus, 5.5); Swapnil S. Dhopade (5) beat De Haan Eric (Ned, 5); P Harikrishna (5.5) beat Daniel Cawdery (Rsa, 4.5); Raja Harshit (5) drew with Tamas Banusz (Pol, 5); M R Lalith Babu (5.5) beat Sarah Hoolt (Eng, 4.5); Hemant Sharma (5) drew with Dvirnyy Danyyil (Rus, 5); Mohammad Nubairshah Shaikh (5.5) beat Bela Khotenashvili (Geo, 4.5); Valentin Dragnev (Ita. 5.5) beat Padmini Rout (4.5); Raunak Sadhwani (4.5) drew with Erik Blomqvist (Can, 4.5); Nisha Mohota (4.5) drew with Wemmers Xander (Ger, 4.5); P V Nandidha (5) beat John Paul Wallace (Eng, 4); Cholleti Sahajasri (3) lost to Kvisla Johannes Luangtep (4); Tejaswini Sagar (4) beat Julian Estrada Nieto (Esp, 3)