IM Sankalp Gupta and Mitrabha Guha of India are jointly leading the Joytu Sheikh Hasina International Grandmasters Chess Tournament 2021, securing 6.5 points each after eighth and penultimate round games held in the capital Sunday.

IM Aronyak Ghosh of India remained in the second position with 6 points. 

Seven players – GM Ziaur Rahman of Bangladesh, GM Masadeghpour Masoud of Iran; IM Mohammad Nubairshah Shaikh, IM Sayantan Das, IM Srijit Paul, IM Neelash Saha and Sanket Chakravarty of India – are sharing the third position, with 5.5 points each.

GM Enamul Hossain Razib of Bangladesh, GM Vadim Malakhatko of Belgium, IM Asyl Abdyjapar of Kyrgyzstan, IM Kaustav Chatterjee, Subhayan Kundu, Sourath Biswas of India earned five points each.

In Sunday's eighth round games, IM Sankalp drew with IM Nubairshah. IM Mitrabha beat IM Kaustav, IM Arnoyk beat Subhayan; GM Zia drew with IM Srijit, Sanket beat GM Andrey Sumets of Ukraine, IM Sayantan beat GM Ghaem Ehsan Maghami of Iran, IM Neelash beat GM Deep Sengupta of India, GM Masoud beat IM Sammed Jaykumar Shete of India, and GM Malakhatko beat IM Mohammad Fahad Rahman.

FM Md Taibur Rahman drew with Alexander Zubarev of Ukraine, IM Abdyjapar beat FM SK Nasir Ahmed, GM Razib beat CM Chanchal Kumar Ghosh, Sourath beat CM Liyange Ranindu Dishan of Sri Lanka, WIM Arpita Mukharjee of India drew with IM Abu Sufian Shakil, GM Alexey Kislinsky of Chez Republic beat FM Debaraj Chatterjee, FM Piyamantha Sasith Nipun of Sri Lanka beat CM Md Sharif Hossain, IM Mahmood Lodhi of Pakistan beat FM Syed Mahfuzur Rahman, FM Subrota Biswas beat Swrnavo Choudhury, FM Mohammad Javed drew with IM Mohammad Minhaz Uddin.

CM Tahsin Tajwar Zia beat CM Nayem Haque, CM Jamal Uddin beat FM Mehdi Hasan Parag, Jabed Al Azad drew with Anata Choudhury, CM Manon Reja Neer beat WFM Noshin Anjum, Shafiq Ahmed drew with cM Sohel Chowdhury, Sakline Mostafa Sajid beat Showkat Hossain Pollab, CM Sadnan Hasan Dihan beat Delwar Hossain, Mortuza Mahathi Islam beat Md. Sariatullah, FM Md Saif Uddin Lavu beat Mohammad Shameem, WCM Ahmed Walijah beat Kazi Zarin Tasnim, WCM Jannatul Ferdous Marzouq Chowdhury and Md Sajidul Haque beat Wadifa Ahmed.

The ninth and last round games will start Monday at 11:00 am at the same venue.