Laxman in joint lead with Areshchenko

On the third board,Grandmaster Neelotpal Das and International Master Deep Sengupta drew to share the second spot with 6.5 points each with Yuriy Kuzubov of Ukraine,Uzbek Saidali Iuldachev,Russian GM Mikhail Ulibin and Anwesh Upadhyaya.

Meanwhile,former National champion Abhijit Kunte drew with International Master Himanshu Sharma. National ‘B’ champion International Master B Adhiban suffered a shock defeat at the hands of Tajikistan Fide Master Djuraev Sokhib. Among other Indians in the fray,P Magesh Chandran settled for a draw against Soumya Swaminathan while Praveen Thipsay defeated Sahaj Grover in their eighth-round matches.

Results of Round 8:
GM Alexander Areshchenko of Ukraine (7) drew with Yuriy Kuzubov of Ukraine (6.5); Yuri Solodovnichenko of Ukraine (6) lost to IM R R Laxman (7); IM Deep Sengupta (6.5) drew with GM Neelotpal Das (6.5); IM Shyam Sundar (6) drew with GM Evgeny Gleizerov of Russia (6); GM Abhijit Kunte (6) drew with IM Himanshu Sharma (6); IM N Srinath (6) drew with GM Anuar Ismagambetov of Kazakhstan (6); GM Saidali Iuldachev of Uzbekistan (6.5) beat B S Shivanada (5.5); GM Mikhail Ulibin (6.5) beat Rahul Sangma (5.5); Anwesh Upadhyaya (6.5) beat M R Lalith Babu (5.5); IM BT Murali Krishnan (6) drew with Shashikant Kutwal (6); FM Djuraev Sokhib of Tajikistan (6) beat IM B Adhiban (5); GM P Magesh Chandran (5.5) drew with WGM Soumya Swaminathan (5.5); IM P Konguvel (5.5) drew with R Premnath (5.5); T U Navin Kanna (6) beat IM Justin Sarkar (5); Soumyaranjan Mishra (5) lost to GM Niaz Murshed (6); Sagar Shah (5.5) drew with M S Thejkumar (5.5); IM S P Sethuraman (6) beat IM R Balasubramaniam (5); T Purushothaman (5.5) drew with IM Saptarshi Roy (5.5); GM Nurlan Ibrayev (6) beat Arindam Mukherjee (5); IM Arghyadip Das (6) beat Jain Shreyansh Daklia (5).