Chess: Aleksandrov Aleksej on the verge of Mayor’s Cup title

Belarussian GM Aleksandrov Aleksej inched closer to title in the fourth LIC Mayor’s Cup International chess tournament on Friday when he overcame India’s MS Thejkumar in the 10th and penultimate round to widen his lead by one point.

Top seed Aleksej subdued Thejkumar in 54 moves. Now, he needs just a draw in his final round match on Saturday to clinch his maiden title in the tournament, organised by Venus Chess Academy.

The victory boosted the points’ tally of title-favourite Aleksej to nine, one better than Ukrainian GM Martyn Kravtsiv.

Top-10 results (Round 10): MS Thejkumar 7.5 lost to GM Aleksandrov Aleksej (Blr) 9; GM Martyn Kravtsiv (Ukr) 8 bt GM Marat Dzhumaev (Uzb) 7; GM Deep Sengupta 7.5 drew GM Neelotpal Das 7.5; Shyam Nikil 7.5 drew with GM Abhijit Kunte 7.5; Anwesh Upadhyaya 7 drew with GM Andrei Deviatkin (Rus) 7; S Nitin 7 drew with GM Nikolai Chadaev (Rus) 7; GM SP Sethuraman 7 drew with Swapnil Dhopade 7; GM Ziaur Rahman (Ban) 7.5 bt Rahul Sangma 6.5; K Rathnakaran 7.5 bt GM Enamul Hossain (Ban) 6.5; GM Deepan Chakkravarthy 7 drew with Debashis Das 7