Indian Grandmaster M R Lalith Babu drew his top board game against GM Mikhalio Oleksienko of Ukraine and moved in shared lead with 5.5 points after the sixth round of the Apollo Engineering College Commonwealth Chess Championships 2012 at SDAT Multipurpose Indoor Stadium, here on Monday. Joining the duo on top of the points table on 5.5 points were top seed Sergei Tiviakov (The Netherlands), Adly Ahmed (Egypt), M R Venkatesh, P Karthikeyan, Ram S Krishnan (all India) respectively. Further half a point behind on five points were Daniil Lintchevski, Alexander Fominyh (both Russia), Marat Dzhumaev (Uzbekistan), Mark Paragua (Philippines)SP Sethuraman, Sahaj Grover, M Shyam Sundar, G Akash, Kathmale Sameer, K Rathnakaran, R Arun Karthik and Ankit R Rajpara (all India).
The Advanced Caro-Kann top board game between Oleksienko and Lalith Babu saw the higher-rated playing for the initiative. His unorthodox style was well handled by Lalith Babu, who snatched a perpetual check from a queen and double rook middle game.
Indian GM SP Sethuraman missed out on an intervening combination that resulted in his loss against former world junior champion Adly Ahmed of Egypt. Following the Caro-Kann, as in the top board, albeit a different line, Sethuraman appeared to be better out of the opening. White’s advanced pawns were pressing against Adly’s centre, making disturbing threats. But the deft handling of double bishops coupled with an exchange sacrifice on the 30th move tilted the game in Egyptian’s favour.
Chennai-based Ram S Krishnan shocked GM-norm holder Akshayraj Kore in 21 moves.
Round 6 Results (Indians unless specified): M Oleksienko (Ukr) 5.5 drew with M R Lalith Babu 5.5, SP Sethuraman 5 lost to Adly Ahmed (Egy) 5.5, Sergei Tiviakov (Ned) 5.5 bt Sundararajan Kidambi 4.5, Ankit R Rajpara 5 drew with D Lintchevski (Rus) 5, Marat Dzhumaev (Uzb) 5 drew with R Arun Karthik 5, Himanshu Sharma 4.5 lost to M R Venkatesh 5.5, S Arun Prasad 4.5 lost to P Karthikeyan 5.5, Ram S Krishnan 5.5 bt Akshayraj Kore 4.5, B Adhiban 4.5 drew with Padmini Rout 4.5, T Purushothaman 4 lost to Mark Paragua (Phi) 5, Alexander Fominyh (Rus) 5 bt P Priya 4, J Ramakrishna 4.5 drew with Rolando Nolte (Phi) 4.5.