Dubai (Aletihad)
Grandmaster (GM) Mahammad Muradli of Azerbaijan forged ahead from a five-way bunch by beating Indian GM Raunak Sadhwani in the top-board match of the fifth round and emerged sole leader at the 24th Dubai Open Chess Tournament.
Muradli has 4.5 points and was the lone winner among the co-leaders at the start of the day.
In the B Category, Yousef Al Hassadi of Libya also sits alone at the top after outplaying his fourth co-leader WIM Srishti Pandey at the Dubai Chess and Culture Club.
Al Hassadi is now the only player in both categories with a perfect five points, half a point ahead of three players – Fide Master (FM) Bakhyt Temirov of Kazakhstan, and the UAE's FMs Ahmed Fareed and Saif Ahmed.
The two-time Azerbaijan champion Muradli played the Sicilian Defence in a 39-move win over the higher-rated Sadhwani.
Muradli, who at only 20 years old already has two national titles under his belt, forced Sadhwani on the defensive with strong pressure against the white king that had castled on the queenside.
In mutual time pressure, Sadhwani found an important resource on the 33rd move, a bishop sacrifice that anchored a counterattack against the black king to complicate the game.
But the Indian could not find the best continuation with just less than a minute on his clock, allowing Muradli to reclaim his advantage and wrap up the win six moves later.
The three other fourth-round co-leaders, GM-elect Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus of Turkiye and GM SP Sethuraman and IM Aronyak Ghosh of India, drew their games to slide down to joint second place with four points each.
Erdogmus and Sethuraman played the Queen's Gambit opening, which ended peacefully in a repetition of moves.
Ghosh halved the point with GM Velimir Ivic in a game where the Indian was presented excellent chances of winning only to spoil it when he allowed the Serbian to escape by perpetual check. Iniyan moved up higher in the ladder after defeating GM Eltaj Safarli of Azerbaijan.