Grandmaster Surya Shekhar Ganguly scored an emphatic victory over International Master Enamul Hossain of Bangladesh in the ninth and penultimate round of the ONGC [Get Quote] Cup International Grandmasters Open Chess Tournament in Hyderabad on Saturday.

The victory helped the National Champion join overnight leaders International Master Deepan Chakravarthy and Grandmaster Pavel Kotsur of Kazakhstan in the lead on 7.5 points with just one round remaining in the 8.25 lakh prize money tournament.

Even though it was informally announced that Chakravarthy made his second Grandmaster norm just before he took on Kotsur, the organisers were waiting for confirmation from FIDE in this regard as there may be a technical hitch. The minor ambiguity is likely to be sorted out by tomorrow.

Chakravarthy, in fact, played it out safely against Kotsur and accepted the latter's offer of a draw in just eight moves to remain joint leader.

It looks as if there might be a tie for the top spot with the winner being decided through tiebreak rules as there are as many as eight players on seven points with just one round remaining.

The upsets continued and benefiting in this round was D P Singh from Jharkhand who accounted for Grandmaster Dibyendu Barua to reach seven points.

Grandmaster Pravin Thipsay, IM S Arun Prasad, IM S Satyapragya, GM Ziaur Rehman and Abdullah Al Rakib from Bangladesh and GM Alexander Fominyh of Russia [Images] are the other players on seven points.

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