Neelotpal now needs a draw tomorrow to become the first International Master from Bengal since GM Dibyendu Barua in 1982.

Grandmaster Alexei Federov (Belarus) outclassed GM Alexander Wajtkeiwicy (Poland) in a Sicilian Defence game to take his lead to 7.5 points.

Continuing his good showing in endgames in the present tournament, Federov exchanged queens early in the English attack and came out with a minuscule advantage thanks to his queenside pawn majority.

Wajtkeiwicy's positional blunder on the 17th move helped Federov close the centre, thereby paralyzing the Kingside pawns of his opponent. Federov then made a fine manoeuvre, invading the queenside on the open queen rook file. Subsequent exchanges only helped Federov and he won a pawn with his bishop to finish the game.

In the second board, Grandmaster DorianRogozenko of Moldova split points with Russian GM Sergei Dolmatov while Jonathan Speelman of England got the better of GM S Zagrebelney.

Neelotpal chose an offbeat variation against the Caro-Kann defence of his illustrious opponent and obtained the isolated queen pawn position in the middlegame.

A King side attack ensured Neelotpal a big advantage positionally which he did not let go. Sasikiran gave up when he saw the inevitable loss of material. Neelotpal thus completed his nine game IM norm.

In other matches, Russian GM Mihail Ulibin prevailed over India's P Mitrakant to earn full points and consolidate his position in the tournament.Sandipan Chanda after giving a tough fight conceded defeat to GM Viktor Komliakov while DK Sharma suffered defeat at the hands of Reefat Bin Sattar of Bangladesh.