Chennai, Jan 21 (PTI): Chennai's P Shyaam Nikhil and GM Maxim Lugovskoy of Russia were in joint lead with five points from five rounds in the 11th Chennai Open International Grand Master chess tournament here Monday.

Sharing the third spot half a point behind the leaders with 4.5 points were GMs Luka Paichadze, Aleksej Aleksandrov (both Belarus), Erigaisi Arjun, Karthik Venkataraman (both India), among others.

Games on the first and third boards ended in draws with Nguyen Van Huy and Paichadze Luka and Karthik Venkataraman and A Ra Harikrishnan sharing honours.

This left overnight joint leaders Shyaamn Nikhil and Lugovskoy to snatch the lead winning their respective games.

Nikhil scored a win against GM Tran Tuan Minh of Vietnam in 36 moves. The Bluemenfeld Counter Gambit game saw Chennai based double GM norm-holder leaping forward to a big pawn push in the centre.

In the ensuing skirmish of exchanges, the Indian placed both his rooks behind passed pawns, converting his win without ado.

In another upset, International Master A L Muthaiah of Chennai outplayed experienced Grand Master Megaranto Susanto of Indonesia in 31 moves.

Results: Round 5 (Indians unless specified): Nguyen Van Huy (Vie) 4.5 drew with Luca Paichadze (Geo) 4.5, Tran Tuan Minh (Vie) 4 lost to P Shyaam Nikhil (5), Karthik Venkataraman (4.5) drew with A Ra Harikrishnan (4.5).

Maxim Lugovskoy (Rus) 5 beat G Akash (4), Ivan Popov (Rus) 4 drew with Girish A Koushik (4.5), Aleksej Aleksandrov (Blr) 4.5 beat V Saravanan (3.5), Harshavardhan G B (4) drew with Stupak Kirill (Blr) 4, A L Muthiah (4.5) beat Megaranto Susanto (Ina) 3.5.

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