Lalit Babu, Neelotpal lead in three-way tie

India’s Lalit Babu (left) and Neelotpal Das

Lalit Babu and Neelotpal Das scored impressive victories to join Gharibyan Mamikon of Armenia in joint lead after the eighth round at the Mumbai International Grandmaster Chess Tournament here on Tuesday.

While Babu defeated GM Alexei Fedorov of Belarus with white pieces in 39 moves, Das got the better of IM Arsen Davtyan of Armenia. Mamikon produced a major upset, beating leader GM Aleksej Aleksandrov of Belarus with the black pieces to accumulate seven points from eight matches.

Nine players - including GM Aleksandrov, GM Levan Pantsulaia, GM Manuel Petrosyan, GM Deepan Chakkravarthy and GM Nguyen Duc Hoa - are on 6.5 points from eight matches.

In the junior section, FM Aansh Nerurkar bounced, beating CM Madhvendra Sharma, while CM Madhesh Kumar was held to a draw by Advik Agrawal. Nerurkar and Kumar are joint leaders with seven points from eight matches.