Krishna beats holder Muradli, goes on top in Dubai chess tourney

International Master (IM) S Rohith Krishna of India defeated defending champion GM Mahammad Muradli of Azerbaijan to rise to the top of the standings in a tie with Grandmaster (GM) Aleksey Grebnev of Russia after Sunday night's sixth round of the 25th Dubai Open Chess Tournament at the Dubai Chess and Culture Club.

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Grebnev, the overnight solo leader, drew with top-seed GM Nihal Sarin on the first board, allowing Krishna to join him for the lead with five points each.

The two players will face each other in the seventh round. Nihal remains in joint second place with 4.5 points, alongside his compatriot GM Bharath Subramaniyam, GM Ivan Zemlyanskii of Russia, GM Shant Sargsyan of Armenia, and GM Sina Movahed of Iran.

Muradli, playing black, sacrificed a pawn on move six in a delayed Benko Gambit and a few moves later the game reached a position that was previously seen in a game between world number two Hikaru Nakamura and former FIDE world champion Ruslan Ponomariov.

Muradli, however, deviated on move 13, a questionable decision that allowed Krishna to gain time to reinforce his central pawns and plant an uncontested knight on the c4-square, the white knight's ideal outpost in the Benko Gambit.