Azerbaijani woodpusher Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Filipino grandmaster Wesley So posted big wins on Friday (Netherlands time) to move up in the world rankings after round 6 of the 80 Tata Steel Chess Masters Tournament in the Netherlands.
Mamedyarov endured a seven-hour encounter with Indian foe Bashkaran Adhiban to prevail in 86 moves of an English Opening.
This allowed him to take the solo lead with 4.5 points, and move a notch up in the FIDE rankings to no. 2 with an ELO rating of 2813.3.
So needed 41 moves to get past Wei Yi in 41 moves of a Reti Opening, and his second consecutive triumph propelled him from no. 6 to no. 3 with a new ELO rating of 2798.5, according to the live chess ratings.
Analysts say it was a lost game for Mamedyarov. But things turned around on the 42nd move when Adhiban made a bad knight move.
Mamedyarov gained the upper hand following a queen exchange in the next three moves.
On the other hand, Wei handled the complications of the Reti well until the 26th move, when he made a pawn d4 push instead of rook d4 move.
The Filipino GM found the winning line, and because of this, So moved up to a share of the second spot with 4 points.
He shares the no. 2 spot with Anish Giri and Viswanathan Anand.
Giri and Anand drew in just moves of a Catalan.
So is set to clash with Giri in round 7.
World no. 1 Magnus Carlsen is in third with Vladimir Kramnik with 3.5 points.