Two Kerala players are going strong in the 18th Tashkent Open 'Agazamov Memorial' chess tournament in the Uzbek capital.

After the completion of round 7 on Wednesday, GM Nihal Sarin was joint-first on 6 points, while GM S L Narayanan was joint-second on 5.5 points. Another Indian GM, Abhimanyu Puranik, shares the lead with Nihal and Turkmenistan's Atabayev Saparmyrat.

Nihal defeated GM Sanan Sjugirov, while Narayanan got the better of Sergei Lobanov in the respective round 7 games to continue their unbeaten runs. At least 36 Indians, including eight grandmasters, are among the 150 participants in the Tashkent Open.

In Thursday's eighth round, Nihal will play black against Puranik and Narayanan is up against Singaporean Tin Jingyao. The ten-round event will conclude on March 29.

Nihal, 20, and Narayanan, 27, are two of the three grandmasters from Kerala. G N Gopal is Kerala's first GM, the title he attained in 2007 at the age of 18. Thiruvananthapuram native Narayanan was 17 when he earned his GM title in 2015 before Thrissur lad Nihal set the record in 2018 as the youngest (14) from Kerala to become a GM.

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