India's Malayali Grandmaster Nihal Sarin upset overnight leader GM Parham Maghsoodloo in round 7 to jump into the joint lead in the Grand Swiss 2025 at Samarkand in Uzbekistan on Thursday.

The 21-year-old from Thrissur shares the lead with German Matthias Bluebaum on 5.5 points from a possible 7. Bluebaum caused a major upset by defeating India No 2 Arjun Erigaisi on the second board. Bluebaum (2671) has exactly 100 rating points fewer than Erigaisi.

Nihal is the third and youngest Grandmaster from the southern Indian state of Kerala. With a rating of 2693, he is also the highest-rated Malayali in the world. Nihal has a performance rating of 2850 (rating of 2800 and more is considered Super GM level) in the Grand Swiss, having gone unbeaten so far with four wins, including three in a row.

S L Narayanan, the other Kerala-based GM in the event, drew his seventh game in a row, the latest against veteran Boris Gelfand, a former World Championship challenger.

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Meanwhile, GM Divya Deshmukh, only the second woman in the open category, scored her second win in the event. Divya, rated 2478, defeated 2630-rated Velimir Ivic of Serbia to take her tally to 3.5 points.

India No 1 R Praggnanandhaa returned to winning ways by defeating Israeli GM Maxim Rodshtein to make it 4.5 points.

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