Neelotpal's more renowned compatriot Abhijit Kunte (3.5) also kept up the fine display by getting the better of Hungarian GM Piter Szkeley in the eighth round. Playing French Defence with black pieces, the young IM from Calcutta forced the current world number 11 to surrender after 26 moves. GM Yuri Shulman (6.5) of Belarus took sole lead in the 13-man field.

Kasparov takes lead LINARES: World Champion Gary Kasparov jumped into the lead with a superb victory over overnight leader Michael Adams while the two top contenders for his crown, defending champion Viswanathan Anand and Vladimir Kramnik settled for a 19-move draw in the fifth round of the Linares Chess Tournament.

Anand, playing with black against Kramnik, played his fifth draw in as many matches. In thesixth round, Anand has white against Russian Svidler while Kasparov too has white against Leko. Results: Adams lost to Kasparov; Topolov drew with Svidler; Kramnik drew with Anand; Leko bt Ivanchuk.Points position: Kasparov (Rus, 3.5); Svidler (Rus, 3), Adams (Eng, 3); Anand (Ind, 2.5), Topolov (Bul, 2.5), Kramnik (Rus, 2.5); Leko 2; Ivanchuk (1).

Asian zonals

MUMBAI: Grandmaster Dibyendu Barua, Pravin Thipsay (both India) and Niaz Kurshed (Bangladesh) are among the twelve men players who would be seen in action along with women's International Masters A Vijayalakshmi (India) and Mal Rani Hamid (Bangladesh) in the Rs two lakh Datamatics Asian Zone chess championship to be held here from March 7-18. Barua with a FIDE rating of 2545, is the highest ranked player in the men's draw.

The top two men and top woman would gain direct entries in the May-June world inter-zonals to be held in Las Vegas, US.

New format for women

KOCHI: Close on the heels of the Knockout World Open ChessChampionship, the women's championship is also inching towards a similar format for its worn-out cycle. Fide has already given approval to the new format, with the inaugural Knockout event taking place this September in Moldova.