Barbosa topples Paragua, shares Delhi chess lead

MANILA, Philippines - Oliver Barbosa mastered fellow Filipino GM Mark Paragua in 33 moves of a Gruenfeld to remain tied for the lead with GM John Paul Gomez in the penultimate round of the 10th Parsvnath International Grandmasters chess tournament in New Delhi, India late Sunday.

The victory hiked Barbosa’s total to 8.5 points, the same output put in by Gomez, who outwitted GM Deepan Chakkravarthy of India in 42 moves of King’s Indian defense.

Barbosa and Gomez go for the crown against IM Shyam Nikil P and Ma Qun of China, respectively, with the former fancied to get past his Indian rival.

Trailing the Filipino bets at eight points are Lalith Babu M R, Shyam Nikil P and Rathnakaran K of India and Ma Qun of China while Paragua got stalled at 7.5 in the company of GM Evgeny Gleizerov of Russia, GM Martyn Kravtsiv of Ukraine, GM Abhijit Kunte, IMs Vaibhav Suri and Vidit Santosh Gujrathi of India.

GM Richard Bitoon crushed IM Sahu Sekhar Chandra of India.

In other final round matches, Paragua faces GM Evgeny Gleizerov of Russia while Bitoon clashes with Kulkarni Chinmay of India.