Kunte in sole lead

Grandmaster Abhijit Kunte shot into sole lead with a brilliant technical victory over GM Peter Wells of England in the 10th and penultimate round of the Smith and Williamson British chess championship, now drawing to a close, in Edinburgh, Scotland.

With just one more round remaining in this 10,000 pounds sterling first prize tournament, Kunte (8 points) has a slender half point lead over compatriot Grandmaster Pendyala Harikrishna, who held top seed GM Vassilios Kotronias to a draw.

A repeat Indian victory in the tournament looks imminent, with Kunte just needing a draw to at least a tie for the first place.

IM R B Ramesh was the surprise winner of the previous championship when he won ahead of many a fancied names  including Kunte and Harikrishna.

Kunte, a former national champion, will meet Swiss GM Joseph Gallagher in the final round game with black pieces.

As many as seven players are in the hunt for the top prize behind Kunte and Harikrishna, tallying an identical score of seven points and also in with a chance for a shared first place in the unlikely event of Kunte going down in the last round and Harikrishna at best drawing.

The hopefuls are local GMs Paul Motwani and Jonathan Rowson, Bangladesh's GM Ziaur Rahman, Georgian WGM Arakhamia-Grant Ketevan, Gallagher, Kotronias and Tejas Bakre.

The women title however appears to have slipped away from the Indians after WGM S Vijayalakshmi lost to Motwani.

Vijayalakshmi remained on six points after going down and Ketevan moved ahead amongst the women.

Important results, round 10 (Indians unless specified): P Harirkishna (7.5) drew Vassilios Kotronias (7, Cyp); Abhijit Kunte (8) beat Peter Wells (6.5, Eng); Zia-ur Rahman (7, Ban) drew Jonathan Rowson (7, Sco); S Vijayalakshmi (6) lost to Paul Motwani (7, Sco); Daniel Gormally (6, Eng) lost to Joseph Gallagher (7, Sui); Arakhami-Grant Ketevan (7, Geo) beat Reefat Bin Sattar (6, Ban); Tejas Bakre (7) beat Stewart Haslinger (6, Eng); Neelotpal Das (6) drew Stuart Conquest (6, Eng); Aaron Summerscale (6.5, Eng) beat Simon Buckley (5.5, Eng); Neil McDonald (5.5, Eng) lost to Enamul Hossain (6.5, Ban); Laurence Webb (5.5, Eng) lost to Ameet Ghasi (6.5, Eng); Sundararajan Kidambi (5.5) drew Thomas Rendle (5.5, Eng); Gurpreet Pal Singh (5.5) drew Simon Ansell (5.5, Eng); Aarthie Ramaswamy (5) drew Steve Mannion (5.5, Sco); Dibyendu Barua (5.5) beat Swati Ghate (4.5);      Nisha Mohota (5.5) beat Stephen Gordon (4.5, Eng); Matthew Broomfield (5.5, Eng) beat S Meenakshi (4.5); Eesha  Karavade (4) drew Martyn Goodger (4, Eng).