A pack of nine players share the lead after the end of fourth round matches of the ongoing 2nd Hyderabad International Grandmasters Chess Tournament sponsored by Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Ltd, Mahindra Ecole Centrale, Andhra Bank, Petronet LNG Ltd and Airports Authority of India here at Kotla Vijaya Bhaskara Reddy Indoor Stadium, Yousufguda on Wednesday evening.
Top two boards matches between the leaders Grandmaster Vidit Santosh Gujarthi and Grandamster Azer Mirzoev of Azerbaijan as well as International Master Mozharov Mikhail of Russia and Grandmaster Vladislav Borovikov of Ukraine ended without decisive result which helped Grandmasters Lalith Babu, S P Sethuraman, Alon Greenfeld of Israel and Georgian duo Merab Gagunashvili and Levan Pantsulaia to catch up the leaders.
Pantsulaia defeated Indian Grandmaster Arun Prasad while Lalith made short work International Master Swapnil Dhopade.
Gagunashvili, Sethu and Greenfeld joined the leaders after beating Neelotpal Das, Ramnath Bhuvanesh and Swayams Mishra respectively in the fourth round encounters.
In the surprising results in the fourth round, Andhra youngster S Ravi Teja and Aniruddha Deshpande held higher seeded International Master Jacek Stopa of Poland and Grandmaster Sinisa Drazic of Serbia respectively while Ukrainian Grandmaster Valeriy Neverov forced to split the point against Abhimanyu Puranik.
Category B event of the tournament with Rs. 5 lakh prize money will start tomorrow morning while fifth round of premier event will be played in the afternoon.
Tough tournament.