Russian grandmaster Maxim Turov (7.5 points) maintained his half point lead over Uzbek GM Marat Dzhumaev and unstoppable Anwesh Upadyaya of Orissa at the end of the eighth round of the LIC & ONGC sponsored Chennai Open 2010 international chess tournament organised by Sports promotion Foundation at the Multipurpose Indoor stadium, Chennai today. Six players among whom three are Indians - P. Shyam Nikil, M.R. Lalith Babu of A.P. and Vikramaditya Kamble of Railways have scored 6.5 points each.

Anwesh again played a sensational game and his fine run continued, the victim in the eighth round being Ukraine GM Martyn Kravtsiv. Playing Petroff defence, Anwesh sacrificed his knight for two central pawns on the 17^th move. He again sacrificed his rook two moves later but got it back soon. When the result was clear on the wall by move 35, Anwesh was up by four pawns. By the end of the eighth round and after making the ninth round pairing, Anwesh has secured his IM norm and set to make his GM norm also, if the trend continues.

Maxim and Lalith Babu played the Caro kann defence very fast, with plenty of time left on the clock. Maxim played a strong Nf5 on move 15, which almost decided the game in his favour. The grandmaster's vast experience helped him later to pocket the point in a bishop Vs knight ending with an extra pawn.

In a Ruy Lopez opening by Shyam Nikil, his opponent R.B. Ramesh, former Commonwealth and British champion overlooked an in between Qb3 move by Shyam. Shyam gained a minor piece in exchange for his two pawns and kept the tempo to earn a point and his final IM norm.

In a classical Sicilian defence, Marat was involved in a long drawn battle before securing a full point against Dimtry Kryakvin of Russia. Marat marched his pawn towards the eighth rank and Dmitry had to forego his knight to eliminate the pawn from the board. The rest was mere technique and Marat won in 83 moves.

Irespective of losing the queen for rook, Vikramdit Kamble brilliantly defended his position to force a draw in a French classical exchange game against Maniuk Mikulas the GM from Slovekia. After agreeing to a well fought draw in 30 moves with J. Deepan Chakkaravarthy of PSPB, R. Siddharth of Tamil Nadu obtained his IM norm, with a round to spare.

Important Results of Eighth round