Abhijeet stuns Vidit, shares lead with three others

Abhijeet Gupta extended his dream run at the expense of higher-ranked Vidit Gujarati in 65 moves to share the lead with three others. He has 4.5 points from five rounds.

Abhijeet Gupta has won four games and drawn one so far at the Isle of Man international chess tournament.

Former World junior champion Abhijeet Gupta extended his dream run at the expense of higher-ranked Vidit Gujarati in 65 moves to share the lead with three others in the Isle of Man
International chess tournament here on Wednesday.

After the two overnight leaders China’s Wang Hao and Azerbaijan’s Arkadij Naiditsch drew their fifth-round encounter, USA’s Jeffery Xiong joined them at 4.5 points by beating Richard Rapport.

With Naiditsch opting for a half-point bye in the sixth round, Abhijeet has been drawn to face Hikaru Nakamura.

Among the other Indians, most of the higher-rated players were engaged in drawn encounters. Swapnil Dhopade made his presence felt by beating Norway’s Aryan Tari. Dhopade joined Viswanathan Anand, who took a fifth-round bye, Vidit, S. P. Sethuraman, B. Adhiban and Nihal Sarin in the joint-12th place with 3.5 points.