India’s Young Grandmaster and Former World Junior Champion Abhijeet Gupta sprang a surprise when he shocked Veteran Grandmaster and Championship favourite Ivan Sokolov in the 8th round to emerged Joint leader along with local hero GM Hannes Stefansson, who beat French Grandmaster Igor Nataf in a technically Superior game. Both Gupta and Stefansson are on 6.5 points each and will face each other in the Final round. Besides these Two there are as many as 6 players on 6 points making the championship title wide open. In the Indian Squad Dronavalli Harika also won her 8th round game and is just half a point away from achieving her GM norm. Eesha Karwade , Tania Sachdev and Vishal Sareen drew their games while Sahej Grover lost to a higher rated GM Heikki Westeriene. Less