Sundararajan Kidambi took a giant stride towards his second Grandmaster norm by stunning Armenian Grandmaster Tigran Petrosian in the fourth round of the ninth Dubai International Chess Championship on Thursday.

Kidambi, who started with a draw in the nine-round event, scored his third victory on the trot and emerged joint leader in the US $45,000 prize-money tournament on 3.5 points out of a possible 4.

There was more good news for the Indian contingent as Woman Grandmaster Eesha Karavade scored a scintillating victory over former world women's champion Zhu Chen, who now represents Qatar.

Eesha took her tally to three points and is now in strong contention for her third and final International Master norm.

The other Indian performer was M R Lalith Babu, who accounted for higher-rated IM Al Sayed Mohamad of Qatar while GM R B Ramesh had it easy against Egyptian El Arousy Abdul Hameed.

In a minor upset of the day Sharif Mehrshad of France held highest-rated Indian GM in the fray, Koneru Humpy, to a draw after a hard-fought battle.

Meanwhile, as many as 10 players emerged joint leaders on 3.5 points each.