New Delhi: Gogineni Rohit held top seed Alexei Dreev, while Abhijeet Gupta and S. Arun Prasad split points with their respective opponents to make Grandmaster-norms in the ninth round of the Parsvnath International Chess tournament here on Sunday.

In the other top board game, G. Adhiban came within sniffing distance of making his GM-norm by upsetting GM Deepan Chakravarthy at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium.

Abhijeet signed a draw with GM Neelotpal Das to confirm his second GM-norm and Prasad held International Master M.R. Venkatesh. Adiban is now just a draw away from the coveted norm.

With just a round to go, the lead is shared by four players — Rohit, Dreev, GM Adly Ahmed and Adhiban. (PTI)