GM Daniil Dubov of Russia and GM Anton Korobov of Ukraine beat their respective opponents to share the lead with 5.5 points each after 6 rounds of the Abu Dhabi Chess Festival Masters championship at the Dusit Thani Hotel in Abu Dhabi.
Dubov, 22, turned back the Reti opening of Levan Pantsulaia of Georgia. sacrificing the exchange on the 36th move to weave a mating net with Queen and Rook and force resignation on the 40th move. Korobov, 23, the 2010 Abu Dhabi Masters champion and two-time Ukrainian champion, crushed the Symmetrical opening of Chinese GM Wang Hao, threatening mate on the 35th move.
Erstwhile co-leader GM Salem A.R. Saleh of the UAE is in third slot with 5 points after settling for a draw in 20 moves against the Trompovsky Attack of GM Martyn Kravtsiv of Ukraine.
Wang, Pantsulaia and Kravtsiv trail with 4.5 points together with 13 other GMs in the race for the top prize of $13,000. Four Indians are tied with them, namely Murali Karthikeyan, S.L. Narayanan, Chithambaram Aravindh and IM Sarin Nihal of India. Also tied at 4.5 points each are top seed Le Quang Liem of Vietnam, Richard Rapport of Hungary, Vladimir Fedoseev of Russia, Gabriel Sargissian of Armenia, Daniele Vocaturo of Italy, Ivan Cheparinov of Georgia, Parham Maghsoodloo and Amin Tabatabaei of Iran, Mads Andersen of Denmark.
In the Open division of 236 players, four players share the lead with 5.5 points each after six rounds, namely Datar Sohan of India, Sameer Loay of Jordan, Jemal Overzdurdiyeva of Turkmenistan, Mohammad Al Saleh of Syria and Kazybek Umbetov of Kazakhstan.
In the juniors for under-16 players, Kazybek Umbetov of Kazakhstan grabbed solo lead with perfect 7 points followed by IM D. Gubesh of India in second slot with 6.5 points out of 7 rounds.
Over $61,000 in cash prizes are at stake in the tournament organized by the Abu Dhabi Chess Club and the Abu Dhabi Cultural Foundation under the patronage of H.H Sheikh Nahyan bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Chairman of Abu Dhabi Sport Council.