IM norm holder K Ratnakaran continued with his giant killing act and defeated Grandmaster R B Ramesh to emerge joint leader after the end of the fifth round in the Pune International Open Chess on Tuesday.
Sharing the top spot with Ratnakaran were GMs Evgeny Vladimirov of Kazakhstan, Uzbek trio of Alexei Barsov, Dzhumaev Marat and Saidali Iuldachev, Russia's Alexander Fominyh on 4 points at the half way stage in this $12,000 prize money tournament.
A dozen players including Indian favourite Dibyendu Barua were half a point adrift of the leading group with 3.5 points each in their kitty while a pack of 15 including Tejas Bakre shared the third spot with 3 points apiece.
Fresh from her outing in a strong event at the Czech Republic and Abu Dhabi international festival, Eesha Karvade was not overawed by the celebrity status of her opponent and GM Safin Shukhrat of Uzbekistan to an easy draw.
Young Parimarjan Negi was not far behind either and following two important scalps of IMs D K Sharma and R R Laxman, the 11-year old from Delhi held highly rated IM Tahir Vakhidov, also of Uzbekistan.
Top seeded Vladimirov's fine opening preparation came to fore against Barsov who failed to make an impact despite uncorking a novelty in one of the main variations of the Nimzo Indian defence.
Playing black, Vladimirov later dismissed white's new idea as 'suspicious'. "I am not sure if what he tried was correct, only he was struggling to find the best moves thereafter," said the Kazakh who drew an interesting ending.
Barua troubled Marat in the middle game arising out of a Pirc defence where the former played white but the Uzbek had his guards firmly in control right till the very end.
After routine exchanges the players arrived at an evenly poised rook and minor piece end game where Barua was first to err by not going for equalizing measures and Dzhumaev was the last as he failed to make most of a better position after trading the rook. "The draw was a just result," said Barua after the game.
Ratnakaran faced a less-played variation of the Sicilian defence with his white pieces against Ramesh and got the upper hand thanks to a middle game accuracy by the Grandmaster.
The tactical battle was a treat to watch thereafter as Ratnakaran sacrificed a piece and caught Ramesh's King off guard.
Forced into an inferior endgame Ramesh tried to make a comeback to no avail as Ratnakaran's rook seized control of the proceedings and netted him a memorable victory.
Important results, round 5 (Indians unless specified): Alexei Barsov (4, Uzb) drew with Evgeny Vladimirov (4, Kaz); Dibyendu Barua (3.5) lost to Marat Dzhumaev (4, Uzb); Ruslan Scherbakov (3.5, Rus) drew with S Kidambi (3.5); M R Venkatesh (3) lost to Saidali Iuldachev (4, Uzb); Alexander Fominyh (4, Rus) beat Sriram Jha (3); K Ratnakaran (4) beat R B Ramesh (3); Praveen Thipsay (3.5) drew with D V Prasad (3.5); Parimarjan Negi (3.5) drew with Tahir Vakhidov (3.5, Uzb); Eesha Karvade (3) drew with Safin Shukhrat (3, Uzb); Lanka Ravi (2.5) lost to Deepan Chakravarthy (3.5); S Vijayalakshmi (3.5) beat V Kamble (3.5); P D S Girinath (3) drew with Arghyadip Das (3); S Roy Chowdhury (3.5) beat Akshayraj Kore (2.5); S Poobesh Anand (3.5) beat G Rohit (2.5); Himansshu Sharma (3) drew with C N Vaidya (3); Rahul Shetty (3.5) beat B S Sivanandan (2.5); Saptarshi Roy (3.5) beat V Saravanan (2.5); Suvrajit Saha (3) drew with Timur Gareev (3); Tejas Bakre (3) beat Aarthie Ramaswamy (2.5); S Arun Prasad (2) lost to R R Laxman (3); Vishal Sareen (3) beat K Nikhilesh Kumar (2); S Meenakshi (2) lost to D K Sharma (3).
