Grandmaster Aleksej Aleksandrov of Belarus maintained his slender half-point lead after settling for a quick draw with compatriot Alexei Fedorov in the eighth round of 18th Delhi International Grandmasters chess tournament here at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium.
It was a non-event at the top of the tables as Aleksandrov just repeated moves very early and the draw was signed within a few minutes of the start of the game.
The day belonged to teenager M Pranesh who scored another upset victory over Grandmaster Adam Tukhaev of Ukraine. Playing what was a slightly suspicious opening, Pranesh went for a dubious sacrifice which should not have worked with correct play but Tukhaev erred heavily and went down.
Pranesh shares the second spot on 6.5 points and is almost assured of his Grandmaster norm in all likelihood. The teen has already confirmed his International Master norm from the tournament.
Pranesh shares the second spot with six others. They are Fedorov, GM Abhijeet Gupta, GM Diptayan Ghosh, Jose Eduardo Martinez of Peru, Kirill Stupak of Belarus and Nodirbek Yakubboev of Uzbekistan.
Among the Indians Abhijeet Gupta scored a fine victory over compatriot Himal Gusain who will now have to work hard to score his GM norm. It was an interesting battle wherein Abhijeet sacrificed a pawn for decent counter play and then cashed in during the mutual time trouble in the end.
Diptayan Ghosh defeated N Lokesh and will now clash with Abhijeet in the next round. With just two rounds to come in the 39 lakh prize money tournament the battle is likely to heat up. Pranesh is up against Yakubboev and is again likely to go all out given his track record here.
Important Results (Round-8) :-
| Title | Name | Country | Rating | Point | Result | Point | Title | Name | Country | Rating |
| GM | Aleksandrov Aleksej | Belarus | 2592 | 7 | drew with | 6½ | GM | Fedorov Alexei | Belarus | 2562 |
| GM | Gupta Abhijeet | India | 2603 | 6½ | beat | 6 | IM | Gusain Himal | India | 2401 |
| GM | Vishnu Prasanna. V | India | 2474 | 5½ | lost to | 6½ | GM | Martinez Alcantara Jose Eduardo | Peru | 2606 |
| GM | Yakubboev Nodirbek | Uzbekistan | 2597 | 6½ | beat | 5½ | IM | Kaczur Florian | Hungary | 2485 |
| GM | Rozum Ivan | Russia | 2573 | 6 | drew with | 6 | IM | Neelash Saha | India | 2356 |
| Lokesh N. | India | 2264 | 5½ | lost to | 6½ | GM | Ghosh Diptayan | India | 2550 | |
| GM | Tukhaev Adam | Ukraine | 2548 | 5½ | lost to | 6½ | FM | Pranesh M | India | 2317 |
| GM | Stupak Kirill | Belarus | 2506 | 6½ | beat | 5½ | GM | Karthik Venkataraman | India | 2479 |
| GM | Lugovskoy Maxim | Russia | 2453 | 5½ | lost to | 6 | GM | Ponkratov Pavel | Russia | 2622 |
| GM | Amonatov Farrukh | Tajikistan | 2631 | 5½ | drew with | 5½ | GM | Hesham Abdelrahman | Egypt | 2429 |
| GM | Karthikeyan Murali | India | 2606 | 6 | beat | 5 | GM | Dzhumaev Marat | Uzbekistan | 2422 |
| IM | Khusenkhojaev Muhammad | Tajikistan | 2420 | 5 | lost to | 6 | GM | Pantsulaia Levan | Georgia | 2598 |
| GM | Karthikeyan P. | India | 2416 | 5 | lost to | 6 | GM | Mchedlishvili Mikheil | Georgia | 2578 |
| FM | Audi Ameya | India | 2359 | 6 | beat | 5 | GM | Bogdanovich Stanislav | Ukraine | 2562 |
| GM | David Alberto | Italy | 2562 | 6 | beat | 5 | Sammed Jaykumar Shete | India | 2398 | |
| IM | Rathnakaran K. | India | 2329 | 6 | beat | 5 | IM | Gholami Aryan | Iran | 2541 |
| GM | Debashis Das | India | 2523 | 6 | beat | 5 | IM | Muthaiah Al | India | 2367 |
| GM | Visakh N R | India | 2518 | 6 | beat | 5 | IM | Abdisalimov Abdimalik | Uzbekistan | 2381 |
| FM | Srihari L R | India | 2302 | 6 | beat | 5 | GM | Yudin Sergei | Russia | 2508 |
| FM | Rohith Krishna S | India | 2289 | 5 | lost to | 6 | GM | Harsha Bharathakoti | India | 2502 |
Himanshu Moudgil wins 18th Delhi International Open ‘Category B’
Himanshu Moudgil of Delhi won the title to pocket cash prize of 3 lakh. It was a four way tie for the pole position with 9 point eachand after the tie was resolved 11-year-old Md Imran of AP, Chandan Mandal of Delhi and Aansh Gupta, also of Delhi finished second to fourth and won cash prize of 2.5, 2 & 1.5 lakh respectively.
A total of 747 players participated from seven countries – Bangladesh, India, Japan, Malaysia, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Uzbekistan in this four-day ten-round Swiss League event.
Final Standings in Category ‘B’
| Rk. | SNo | Name | FED | Rtg | Club/City | Pts. | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 | |
| 1 | 91 | Himanshu Moudgil | IND | 1731 | Del | 9,0 | 0,0 | 66,5 | 71,0 | |
| 2 | 54 | Md Imran | IND | 1782 | AP | 9,0 | 0,0 | 62,0 | 67,0 | |
| 3 | 31 | Chandan Mandal | IND | 1814 | Del | 9,0 | 0,0 | 60,5 | 64,5 | |
| 4 | 22 | Aansh Gupta | IND | 1828 | Del | 9,0 | 0,0 | 59,0 | 63,0 | |
| 5 | 280 | Sailesh R | IND | 1542 | TN | 8,5 | 0,0 | 64,5 | 68,0 | |
| 6 | 45 | Phatak Aanjaneya | IND | 1791 | Mah | 8,5 | 0,0 | 57,0 | 61,5 | |
| 7 | 319 | Prithwi Sinha | IND | 1502 | Wes | 8,0 | 0,0 | 64,0 | 68,5 | |
| 8 | 12 | Devesh Mukherjee | IND | 1859 | Raj | 8,0 | 0,0 | 63,5 | 69,5 | |
| 9 | 3 | Ayan Pal | IND | 1885 | Wes | 8,0 | 0,0 | 63,0 | 68,0 | |
| 10 | 71 | Nayak Sanjeeban | IND | 1755 | Ori | 8,0 | 0,0 | 63,0 | 67,5 | |
| 11 | 37 | Chudasama Ankit | IND | 1805 | Guj | 8,0 | 0,0 | 63,0 | 67,5 | |
| 12 | 171 | Roshan S | IND | 1652 | TN | 8,0 | 0,0 | 63,0 | 67,0 | |
| 13 | 9 | Sai Kiran Y | IND | 1868 | AP | 8,0 | 0,0 | 62,5 | 67,0 | |
| 14 | 36 | Rahul Kumar | IND | 1809 | Bih | 8,0 | 0,0 | 62,5 | 66,5 | |
| 15 | 27 | Anup Shankar R | IND | 1821 | TN | 8,0 | 0,0 | 59,5 | 65,0 | |
| 16 | 169 | Adithya Ramesh | IND | 1654 | TN | 8,0 | 0,0 | 59,0 | 63,0 | |
| 17 | 88 | Saurav Agarwal | IND | 1737 | Del | 8,0 | 0,0 | 58,5 | 63,0 | |
| 18 | 103 | Dhanvij Ansh | IND | 1725 | Mah | 8,0 | 0,0 | 57,0 | 62,0 | |
| 19 | 79 | Ranjith R.K. | IND | 1746 | TN | 8,0 | 0,0 | 56,0 | 60,0 | |
| 20 | 28 | Baig Akram | IND | 1819 | Del | 8,0 | 0,0 | 55,5 | 58,5 |
Certificate of SNA seminar and exam in Rajahmundry on 30 November & 01 December 2024. 
Final Report of Senior National Arbiter Seminar & Examination in Panjim Goa on 7th and 8th December 2024 
Grandmaster Chess Camp in Aizawl, Mizoram from 09-13 December 2024 
Live Games Link for 37th National Under 13 Open and Girls Chess Championship 2024 
Live Game links: ODISHA OPEN (Category ‘A’) 
Certificate of SNA seminar held in DImapur of 28 & 29 November 2024