A rest day after the sixth round had changed the entire status of theBhavarlalKhantabai Jain Multipurpose Foundation 51st Indian Premier Chess Championship, being held at Jain Hills, Jalgoan. With both co leaders GM Sasikiran Krishnan and GM LalithBabu(both from Petroleum Sports Board) losing one game each in either eighth or ninth round, things turned topsyturvy. At the end of the ninth round.LalithBabu snatched the lead with 7.5 points. Sasikiran is trailing by half a point and former under 16 world champion B Adhibanof PSPB hangs on to third place with 6.5 points.

In the eighth round, IM AkshatKamparia of Railways stunned LalithBabu and the spectators by sacrificing his pieces at will, including his queen. In the Bogo Indian defence by Lalith, Akshat’s queen sacrifice was unexpected, but Lalith accepted it, not visualising the moves turning up later. Akshat offered a knight sacrifice, which was also accepted by his opponent. Only when Akshat came forward to donate his bishop, Lalith realised the danger of getting checkmated and resigned. Third placedAdhiban was also shocked by IM AshwinJayaram of Tamil Nadu, making matters complicated.

Loss by LalithBabu helped Sasikiran to emerge leader, after eight rounds, as he drew with his game against DeepanChakravarthy of Tamil Nadu. But, in the ninth round, more surprises showered in, when Adhiban defeated Sasikiran in 37 moves. Sasikiran’s rook exchange for a bishop on the 15th move did not bear any fruitful result. Top seeded ParimarjanNegi of PSPB suffered another loss at the hands of GM Vishnu Prasanna of Tamil Nadu, in the ninth round.LalithBabu earned a full point by beating AswinJayaram to wrest the lead. With four more rounds remaining, the tournament is interestingly poised for a good finish.

Ranking after 9 rounds