Indian Grand Master Abhijit Kunte emerged as the sole leader with 4.5 points after the fifth round of the Kolkata International Open Chess tournament in Kolkata on Friday.

Kunte, who was joint leader with Bangladesh's Enamul Hossain after the fourth round on Thursday, got the better of the player from the neighbouring country during the day to push the latter to the third spot along with eight others with 3.5 points.

Kunte played with black pieces and adopted the Sicilian defence to coast to an easy win having two central pawns in the ending at the Alekhine Chess club.

Top seed GM Aleksej Alexandrov of Belarus outplayed Russia's Alexander Fominyh with white pieces in a Grunfeld defence to move to the second spot gleaning four points.

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