Iuldashev and Marat join Barua in lead

Jamshedpur:

Uzbekistan Grandmasters Saidali Iuldashev and Dzhumaev Marat joined overnight leader GM Dibyendu Barua in lead after the conclusion of the 9th round in the Tata International Open Chess tournament on Saturday. The three leaders have 7.5 points apiece and are half a point adrift of GMs Surya Shekhar Ganguly, P Harikrishna, Alexander Fominyh of Russia, IM Tahir Vakhidov of Uzbekistan and local youngster Deep Sengupta, who all have 7 points each. As many as 11 players including Grandmaster-in-waiting R B Ramesh and GM Abhijit Kunte have 6.5 points each. M Srinivas Rao was another good performer of the day as he turned the tables on Grandmaster Ziaur Rahman of Bangladesh from a nearly lost position and held Zia's compatriot GM Niaz Murshed to a draw - again from an inferior position. (PTI)