KOZHIKODE, March 12: Asian junior champion Abhijit Kunte braved all odds and put himself back in the race for a Grandmaster norm in the Indian Independence Golden Jubilee GM Chess Tournament here at Hotel Hyson Heritage today. His eighth round victory over GM Leonid Yurtaev has considerably reduced his task in the ninth round where he needs only a draw against countryman K Murugan for a nine-round Swiss norm.Kunte, who has already pocketed a nine round GM norm by virtue of his winning the Asian junior title, has been a revelation in this tournament as he has finished off all his heavyweight GM rivals and scored 4.5 points from five games. His only loss has been to India's Lanka Ravi.Kunte and Yurtaev played the Ruy Lopez, following the Anand-Karpov second game in the recent world championship in the opening. Yurtaev did not follow Karpov's line and got an unpleasant ending after middle game exchanges. In the double rook ending, Kunte won a pawn and promoted his pawns on both fronts to create multiplethreats. Yurtaev failed to force a draw and resigned after 65 moves. The win also put Kunte in sole lead with 5.5 points.The irony of this Kunte win was that Yurtaev had refused a draw offer after the 24th move.``I thought I could go for a win,'' said Yurtaev.Top seed Utut Adianto of Indonesia and Zia-ur Rahman of Bangladesh were in the second position with five points each. Adianto scored a facile win over Lanka Ravi of India in 48 moves of semi-Slav Defence. Adianto won an exchange in the middle game and threatened to win more material when Ravi resigned.Ninth round pairings: Komliakov vs Barua; L Ravi vs Zia-ur Rahman; Yurtaev vs Adianto; Murugan vs Kunte; Konguvel vs Prasad; Sasikiran vs Thipsay.RESULTS (8th round): Thipsay (India) 3 bt Konguvel (India) 3.5; DV Prasad (India) 2.5 lost to K Murugan (India) 3; D Barua (India) 4.5 drew with Sasikiran (India) 4.5; Abhijit Kunte (India) 5.5 bt L Yurtaev (Kirghystan) 4; Zia-ur Rahman (Bangladesh) 5 bt Komliakov (Moldova) 4.
