A miniature victory over GM Baron Tal enabled GM Robert Hovhannisyan to take up the sole lead going into the final round of the Riga Technical University Open 2015. The Hovhannisyan – Baron encounter, which took off with the Four Knights Opening, saw Baron get overly ambitious with his 13th move. Hovhannisyan took perfect advantage of his opponent’s blunder and as such, Baron had to resign on move 17.
In other games, the all-Latvian encounter on Board 2 between GMs Shirov and Kovalenko resulted in a fighting draw while Untitled Indian player Aryan Chopra successfully held GM Bartosz Socko on Board 3.
With only one round to go, Hovhannisyan is being closely followed by Shirov on 6.5 points. Meanwhile, as many as 9 players, including Aryan Chopra, are ranked 3rd with 6 points each.
Round 8 Results: Here