Sargsyan climbs to top, Qatar’s Aziz secures first victory

Doha: Armenian grandmaster Shant Sargsyan yesterday jumped to the top of the leaderboard while main title contenders Arjun Erigaisi, Andrey Esipenko a...

Doha: Armenian grandmaster Shant Sargsyan yesterday jumped to the top of the leaderboard while main title contenders Arjun Erigaisi, Andrey Esipenko and Salem Abdulrahman continued to push for top positions with crucial wins at the end of the sixth round of the 2024 Qatar Masters Open.

Sargsyan, seeded 13th, defeated India’s Murali Karthikeyan to make it 5.5 points under his name while India’s top-seed and pre-tournament favourite Erigaisi defeated Russian No.20 seed David Paravyan to bring his score to 5 points.  

UAE Abdulrahman, the leading Arab contestant, also joined the top cluster by defeating Iran’s Bardiya Daneshvar, making it a three-way tie at five points, along with No. 6 seed Esipenko who defeated India’s Rithvik Raja.

Last year’s runner up Nodirbek Abdusattorov of Uzbekistan suffered a blow when he drew with Bulgaria’s Arkadij Naiditsch as both players were left with 4 points each.

His compatriot and the reigning Qatar Masters champion Yakubboev managed to raise his score to 4.5 points and keep his title hopes alive with a win over Russia’s Ivan Zemlyanskii.