Oliver Barbosa, John Paul Gomez share lead

Filipino Grandmasters Oliver Barbosa and John Paul Gomez cruised to their fifth straight wins and shared top spot with Uzbek GM Marat Dzhumaev in the 10th Parsvnath International Open Chess Tournament Wednesday in New Delhi, India.

Barbosa stunned Indian GM Thipsay Praveen in the fourth round then followed it up with another victory against Indian International Master Ashwin Jayaram in the fifth to raise his total to a perfect 5.0 points, the same output of Gomez and Dzhumaev.

Gomez, coming off a runner-up finish in the Chennai Open Grand Master Chess Tournament recently, bested Indians Sekar B and Fide Master Ghosh Diptayan, respectively.

Dzhumaev, on the other hand, toppled Indians Gusain Himal and IM Vaibhav Suri.

Indian IMs Lalith Babu M R, Thejkumar M S and Rathnakaran K were tied at 4th to 6th places with 4.5 points each.

In the sixth round, Barbosa will tackle Dzhumaev; Gomez will face Lalith Babu M R; while Thejkumar M S goes up against Rathnakaran K in Board 3.

GM Mark Paragua trounced Indian IM Praveen Kumar C in the fourth round then drew with Indian Bitan Banerjee for 4.0 points, good for a share of 7th to 35th places.

Another Filipino, GM Richard Bitoon, however, suffered back to back loses at the hands of Indian FM Ghosh Diptayan and Hemant Sharma. Bitoon got stuck at 3.0 points and dropped into a share of 73rd to 139th places.