Grandmaster Krishnan Sasikiran leaped into joint lead as he defeated English GM Mark Hebden in the fifth round of the master's section of Gibtele.Com chess festival at Caleta hotel in Gibraltar on Sunday.

Sasikiran, who was joint fifth at the end of fourth round on Saturday, took his tally to four points out of a possible five and is now in a 10-way lead in this over 15000 Pounds tournament.

Other leaders are top seed Alexei Shirov of Spain, Armenians Levon Aronian and Gabrial Sargissen, Kiril Georgiev of Bulgaria, Hikaru Nakamura of United States, Russian Alexey Dreev, Zahar Efimenko of Ukraine and Israeli duo of Boris Avrukh and Emil Sutovsky, who all have an identical score as the tournament has reached its half way stage.

A pack of 13 players including GMs Jonathan Speelman of England [Images], Vasilios Kotronias of Greece and Colin Mcnab of Scotland are breathing down the neck of the leaders with 3.5 points apiece in their kitty. Five rounds still remain in the strongest edition of master's section of this annual event.

Sasikiran was in his elements in crushing Hebden who was taken to task in an Anti Marshall opening. Playing white, Sasikiran first ensured lively complications in the middle game and just as Hebden felt the heat, the Indian tightened the noose further with a direct attack in the center.

Hebden found some solace in an exchange sacrifice that led the position to wild tactical possibilities but Sasikiran kept his cool when it mattered and his material advantage eventually ensured the full point in 47 moves.

If Sasikiran was in full flow, highly regarded Shirov was a notch ahead in cruising past GM Sergei Erenburg of Israel.

It was, in fact, Shirov's first victory with white pieces here after the Latvian born had drawn his earlier two games, with white, in the tournament.

Eeerenburg employed the Caro Kann  but could not make any impression against the Advance variation as Shirov bruised him all over the board right after the middle game surfaced.

Erenburg could not find a safe haven for his king in the center and eventually caved in after Shirov won a piece. The game lasted 38 moves.

The overnight joint leaders again drew amongst themselves albeit after tough fights. The duel between two former world junior champions Levon Aronian and Kiril Georgiev ended in the split of the point after the former failed to find a real breakthrough despite maintaining a slight advantage for the major part of the game.

Avrukh also had a superior position to boast off against Sargissen but Staid defence by the latter led the position to a drawn minor piece endgame.

In other important clashes of the day, second seed Alexey Dreev accounted for Hichem Hamdouchi of Morocco while Sutovsky proved stronger than Daniel Gormally of England.

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