Unbeaten Grebnev goes on top with four victories and one draw

Grebnev now has 4.5 points, half a point ahead of five players who are in joint second place, including defending champion GM Mahammad Muradli of Azerbaijan and Indian top-seed GM Nihal Sarin

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Grandmaster (GM) Aleksey Grebnev grabbed the pole position after emerging as the lone winner among the erstwhile co-leaders in Saturday night's fifth round of the 25th Dubai Open Chess Tournament at the Dubai Chess and Culture Club.

The 18-year-old Russian talent played the Sicilian Defence and then accepted and ultimately refuted a rare pawn gambit line unleashed by the Indian GM Bharath Subramaniyam to pick up his fourth win against a lone draw and no losses.

Subramaniyam initially succeeded in keeping Grebnev’s king stuck in the centre, but the Indian lost his way in the complications when he allowed a queen trade that left him a pawn down in the endgame - and where the Russian’s previously vulnerable king became an active asset. Grebnev was flawless from thereon, marching his king up the board to support his passed pawn on the f-file as Subramaniyam could do little to stop its advance.