Leaders after 7 rounds:
| 1 | GM | Turov Maxim | RUS | 2584 | 6,5 | 33,5 | 25,5 | 30,50 | 1,17 | 10 | 11,7 |
| 2 | IM | Lalith Babu M R | IND | 2457 | 6,5 | 33,5 | 25,0 | 30,75 | 1,86 | 15 | 27,9 |
| 3 | GM | Dzhumaev Marat | UZB | 2515 | 6,0 | 35,0 | 25,5 | 29,00 | 0,63 | 10 | 6,3 |
| 4 | GM | Manik Mikulas | SVK | 2435 | 6,0 | 34,0 | 25,0 | 28,75 | 1,31 | 10 | 13,1 |
| 5 | Anwesh Upadhyaya | IND | 2400 | 6,0 | 33,5 | 24,5 | 27,75 | 1,75 | 15 | 26,3 | |
| 6 | GM | Kravtsiv Martyn | UKR | 2545 | 6,0 | 33,0 | 24,0 | 27,75 | 0,47 | 10 | 4,7 |
| 7 | IM | Kamble Vikramaditya | IND | 2364 | 6,0 | 33,0 | 24,0 | 27,00 | 1,35 | 10 | 13,5 |
| 8 | GM | Kryakvin Dmitry | RUS | 2575 | 6,0 | 32,5 | 22,5 | 27,25 | 0,57 | 10 | 5,7 |
| 9 | Siddharth R | IND | 2424 | 5,5 | 35,5 | 25,5 | 26,25 | 1,27 | 15 | 19,0 | |
| 10 | FM | Shyam Nikil P | IND | 2386 | 5,5 | 34,0 | 24,0 | 24,75 | 1,05 | 15 | 15,8 |
| 11 | GM | Rahman Ziaur | BAN | 2548 | 5,5 | 33,5 | 24,0 | 25,25 | 0,08 | 10 | 0,8 |
| 12 | IM | Roy Chowdhury Saptarshi | IND | 2413 | 5,5 | 33,0 | 24,0 | 25,50 | 0,94 | 10 | 9,4 |
| 13 | GM | Jumabayev Rinat | KAZ | 2536 | 5,5 | 32,5 | 23,0 | 25,00 | 0,03 | 10 | 0,3 |
| 14 | IM | Venkatesh M R | IND | 2432 | 5,5 | 32,0 | 24,0 | 24,25 | 0,40 | 10 | 4,0 |
| 15 | Vaibhav Suri | IND | 2326 | 5,5 | 31,5 | 23,0 | 23,00 | 1,93 | 15 | 29,0 | |
| 16 | GM | Zubarev Alexander | UKR | 2544 | 5,5 | 31,5 | 21,5 | 23,00 | -0,05 | 10 | -0,5 |
| 17 | Swapnil S Dhopade | IND | 2429 | 5,5 | 31,0 | 22,0 | 23,50 | 0,48 | 10 | 4,8 | |
| 18 | GM | Sundararajan Kidambi | IND | 2526 | 5,5 | 31,0 | 22,0 | 23,25 | 0,06 | 10 | 0,6 |
| 19 | GM | Deepan Chakkravarthy J | IND | 2492 | 5,5 | 31,0 | 22,0 | 22,00 | 0,28 | 10 | 2,8 |
| 20 | GM | Ramesh R B | IND | 2482 | 5,5 | 30,5 | 22,5 | 23,00 | -0,09 | 10 | -0,9 |
| 21 | GM | Arun Prasad S | IND | 2567 | 5,5 | 30,0 | 22,0 | 23,50 | -0,71 | 10 | -7,1 |
| 22 | Swayams Mishra | IND | 2340 | 5,5 | 30,0 | 21,0 | 20,75 | 1,19 | 15 | 17,9 | |
| 23 | IM | Satyapragyan Swayangsu | IND | 2480 | 5,5 | 29,5 | 21,5 | 22,50 | 0,10 | 10 | 1,0 |
| 24 | Fenil Shah | IND | 2201 | 5,5 | 28,0 | 19,5 | 19,25 | 2,00 | 15 | 30,0 | |
| 25 | Ramnath Bhuvanesh R | IND | 2382 | 5,5 | 27,5 | 19,5 | 21,25 | -0,45 | 15 | -6,8 |
Full standings here.
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
This is exciting.
Easy for Lalith
Anwesh beats Bitoon
Anwesh Upadhyaya played the best game of the day when he baffled Richard Bitoon of the Philippines.
Chennai: Lalith Babu scored a crushing victory over Grandmaster Deepan Chakkravarthy in the seventh round of the Chennai Open International Grandmaster chess tournament here on Saturday.
The 30-move triumph has taken the former National junior champion into joint lead alongside second seed Maxim Turov of Russia on 6.5 points.
Turov plays white on Sunday when the players decide who will be the sole leader.
There are six players tied for the third spot on six points. Anwesh Upadhyaya of Bhubaneswar is the only untitled player to be a part of this group. The other five are: V. Kamble, D. Krykvin (Rus), M. Kravtsiv (Ukr), M. Dzhumaev (Uzb) and M. Manik (Svk).
The top board game saw a disappointing 12-move draw between the two Russians. Kryakvin sacrificed his queen and got a draw by perpetually checking the white king of Turov.
Venkatesh did well against Rahman but the Bangladeshi player went for a desperate queen sacrifice to get a draw by perpetual check with his knight.
Anwesh Upadhyaya split Richard Bitoon’s black defence with a splendid knight sacrifice in the centre and completed the kill by move 28.
The highest scorers among women so far are S. Vijayalakshmi, her younger sister S. Meenakshi and Nafisa Muminova (Uzb) on five points each.
Four rounds remain in this event organised by the Sports Promotion Foundation.