Grandmaster and former world junior champion Abhijeet Gupta kept himself in contention for top honours with a sparkling victory over Sebastian Bogner of Switzerland in the 8th and penultimate round of 16th Dubai International open chess tournament here on Tuesday.
On what turned out to be another good day for Gupta, things fell in place in the middle game against Bogner and the Indian did some precise calculation to become sole second with just one round to come in the USD 50000 prize-money tournament.
Romain Edouard of France continued to remain in sole lead after he accounted for Kazakh Grandmaster Anuar Ismagambetov. It turned out to be an easy ride for the French who used his white pieces to maximum effect.
Edouard took his tally to seven points out of a possible eight and this is indeed a spectacular result so far. While Gupta is sole second on 6.5 points, as many as six players also rose to contention for a podium finish with good result in the penultimate round.