Sandipan Chanda smiles after his win against V. Saravanan at Gorky Sadan on Sunday. A Telegraph picture

Calcutta: The Calcutta Open Grandmaster Chess Tournament is poised for an exciting finish. With a clear leader yet to emerge after the end of Round VII on Sunday, the last three rounds at the Alekhine Chess Club promise to be interesting.

Seven players including local IM Saptarshi Roy were bunched at the top with 5.5 points each. Saptarshi inched closer to his maiden GM norm with a draw against Ziaur Rahman.

The Bangladesh GM later told The Telegraph: “I had beaten Saptarshi at least four times before… This is only his second draw against me. I find he has matured as a player and is playing well here”. Saptarshi’s average rating of opponents is 2403. He requires 1.5 points from his next two games for a GM norm. If the average goes up to 2435 he will require only 1 point from two games for a nine-game GM norm ” said chief arbiter R.C. Chatterjee.

On the top board, top-seeded GM Krishnan Sasikiran tried hard to extract a win from a queen and opposite bishop endgame against GM Viktor Laznicka but the latter defended stubbornly.

Ehsan Ghaem Maghami of Iran drew against Filipino GM Ngyuen Anh Dung in an English opening. In a closed set up, the draw was agreed upon after Dung offered to swap the queens on the 30th move.

GM Koneru Humpy played a brilliant game to outwit GM Dibyendu Barua with white in a Semi-Slav defence. Humpy weakened Barua’s kingside and then sacrificed a piece to break open the position.

Barua tried to thwart the attack by giving back the extra piece but Humpy’s menacing pawn on d6, coupled with Barua’s weak pawns forced him to resign on the 48th move. GM Sandipan Chanda made short work of IM V. Saravanan in just 26 moves in a Slav defence with the black pieces. Sandipan forced Saravanan’s king out in the open and pinned his queen after which the latter resigned.

City-based WGM Mary Ann Gomes got the better of Diwakar Prasad Singh comfortably in a Reti opening. Mary Ann now has four points to her credit.

TOP BOARD RESULTS

Round VII — Victor Laznicka (5.5) drew with Krishnan Sasikiran (5.5); Ziaur Rahman (5.5) drew with Saptershi Roy (5.5); Ehsan Ghaem Maghami (5) drew with Nguyen Anh Dung (5.5); Koneru Humpy (5.5) bt Diyendu Barua (4.5); V. Saravanan (4.5) lost to Sandipan Chanda (5.5); Tejas Bakre (5) drew with David Alberto (5); Rolando Nolte (5) drew with Shukhrat Safin (5); Adly Ahmed (5) bt Oliver Barbosa (4); S. Satyapragyan (4) lost to Abdulla Al-Rakib (5); Himanshu Sharma (4) lost to Vladimir Dobrov (5); Vikramaditya Kamble (4) lost to Ashwin Jayram (5); R.B. Ramesh (5) bt Swapnil Dhopade (4); Sriram Jha (5) bt Debashis Das (4); B.T. Muarli Krishnan (5) bt M.R. Venkatesh (4); S. Kidambi (5) bt G.B. Prakash (4); S. Arun Prasad (5) bt N. Sudhakar Babu (4); Smbat Lputian (4.5) bt J. Ramakrishna (4); Enamul Hossain (4.5) bt Frhat Ali (3.5); Neelotpal Das (4.5) bt Kenny Solomon (3.5); M.S. Thejkumar (3.5) lost to Niaz Murshed (4.5).