Bakre will get the International Master title for his excellent performance and needs just a draw to clinch the much coveted Grandmaster norm.

Bakre has a one point lead over Khamrukalon Ibrahi of UZB and Amir Mallahi of Iran.

In the penultimate round, Bakre faced the centre counter opening from Annaberdiev B of Turkmenistan. Amaberdvev gave an interesting pawn sacrifice on the 10th move to temporarily strangle Bakre's king in the centre.

Bakre gave a rook, to take his king to safely on the queenside, which could not be taken. By threatening mate, Bakre exchanged the queens and transposed to a won endgame which he won in 32 moves.

R Karthik came back with a great sacrificial victory over Mas Hafizulhilmi of Malaysia. In a modern opening, Karthik got space advantage on both the blanks with the centre closed and started an attack over Mas's king. In time trouble, Karthik gave three pawnsand an exchange to get Mas' queen. Mas resigned on the 46th more. In the girls section, Nguyen T (Vietnam) and S Vijayalakshmi combined their winning spree to take their tally to eight points. With one round to go, Vijayalakshmi is assured of the silver medal. Ngvyen's tie-break is marginally better then the Indian's.

This has been a good performance for Vijayalakshmi who has good chances for winning the title and complete her Woman Grandmaster title.