Jamshedpur, Oct. 18 (PTI) Uzbek GMs Saidali Iuldashev and Dzhumaev Marat joined overnight leader Dibyendu Barua in lead at the end of the ninth round of the Tata International chess tournament on Saturday.

The three leaders have 7.5 points each and are half-a-point adrift Surya Sekhar Ganguly, P. Harikrishna, Alexander Fominyh, Tahir Vakhidov and Deep Sengupta.

Eleven players, including R. B. Ramesh and Abhijit Kunte have 6.5 each.

While it was a day of draws on top boards, Deep stole the thunder with two fantastic results. In the first match, he toppled the top seeded Dmitry Svetushkin of Moldova in 32 moves and then held Fominyh in the afternoon session.

M. Srinivas Rao beat Bangladesh GM Ziaur Rahman and then held GM Niaz Murshed.

Barua drew with Fominyh in the morning session and then struggled for three hours before holding Surya with black in the ninth round.