Top seed Krishnan Sasikiran and Viktor Laznicka of the Czech Republic shared the lead after nine rounds in the third Kolkata Open chess tournament on Tuesday. Sasikiran outplayed Sandipan Chanda, while Viktor Laznicka beat Koneru Humpy .

Important results (round 9): Sandipan Chanda (6.5) lt to Krishnan Sasikiran (7.5); Viktor Laznicka (7.5) bt Koneru Humpy (6.5); Adly Ahmed (6.5) drew with Safin Shukhrat (6.5); Arun Prasad (7) bt Vladimir Dobrov(6); Rolando Nolte (6.5) bt Abdulla Al-Rakib (5.5); Ziaur Rahman (6.5) bt P Konguvel (5.5); Tejas Bakre (6.5) bt Dibyendu Barua (5.5).