Grandmaster and the highest-rated Indian in the fray Abhijeet Gupta shot into the sole lead, defeating Hatim Al-Hadarani of Yemen in the fourth round of the 16th Dubai International open chess tournament here on Friday.

As many as six players — Axel Bachmann of Paraguay, Eduardo Itturizaga of Venezuela, Zaven Andriasian of Armenia, Constantin Lupulescu of Romania, Anuar Ismagambetov of Kazakhstan and Romain Edouard of France —remain on the heels of the leader with 3.5 points apiece.

Important results: Fourth round (Indians unless specified): Romain Edouard (Fra, 3.5) drew with Axel Bachmann (Par, 3.5): Anuar Ismagambetov (Kaz, 3.5) drew with Eduardo Iturrizaga (Ven, 3.5); Hatim Al-Hadarani (Yem, 3) lost to Abhijeet Gupta (4).

Anton Korobov (Ukr, 3) drew with Ehsan Ghaem Maghami (Iri, 3); M.R. Lalith Babu (3) drew with Vladimir Akopian (Arm, 3); Aleksandr Rakhmanov (Rus, 3) drew with M. Shyam Sundar (3); Zaven Andriasian (Arm, 3.5) bt Debashis Das (2.5); Swapnil Dhopade (2) lost to Yuriy Kuzubov (Ukr, 3); Solak Dragan (Tur, 3) bt Sayantan Das (2); Cicak Slavko (3) bt Aniruddha Deshpande (2); Sahaj Grover (3) bt Harshal Shahi (2); V. Karthik (2) lost to Jahongir Vakhidov (Uzb, 3); Marina Makropoulou (Gre, 2) lost to Ashwin Jayaram (3); S. Ravi Teja (2.5) bt Mayed Al-Rashedi (2); Prince Bajaj (2.5) bt Abdu Al Badani (1.5); Obied Moayed (1.5) lost to Abhishek Kelkar (2.5).

N. Raghavi (2.5) bt Samyuktha Harikrishnan (1.5); Sultan Ibrahim (2) drew with Ivana Maria Furtado (2); C.R.G. Krishna (2) bt Ahmed Holi Ali Moawia (1); Felix Tuomainen (1) lost to B. Pratyusha (2); Assaubayeva Bibissara (Kaz, 1.5) drew with Nishant Malhotra (1.5); Faranka Khaled (1) lost to Nimmy George (2); Marcos Marvin (Phi, 2) bt Akshay Halagannavar (1); A.K. Elnaami Hashem (1) lost to Siva Mahadevan (2).