Kolkata, Sep 7 - Vietnamese Grandmaster Li Quang Liem snatched the leader's tag from Indian GM Sandipan Chanda after the seventh round at the Kolkata Open Grandmaster Chess tournament here Monday.

The in-form Liem accounted for local Grandmaster Surya Sekhar Ganguly from an inferior position to take his points tally to 6 in the fourth edition of the tournament.

Chanda, Czech Republic's Viktor Laznica and Uzbekistan GM Anton Filippov, who stunned SuperGM Briton Nigel Short, share the second spot with 5.5 points each at the Gorky Sadan.

The Vietnamese employed the Caro-Kann defence as Ganguly switched to an offensive mode from the beginning and slowly built a position of strength. The Indian, however, got into acute time trouble and blundered away a couple of pawns after which it was all over.

Chanda and Laznicka, who faced off on the top board, could not break the deadlock even though the local boy defended an inferior position throughout the game.

Filippov shocked Short from the black side of a Giuoco Piano opening. The Englishman tried the sharp Evans gambit and the Uzbek player gobbled up the pawn and defended coolly. Short then gave up a couple of more pawns on the queenside to prepare for an all out attack on the king, but failed to penetrate his opponent's defenses and eventually resigned.

Top seeded Grandmaster Shakriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan played an aggressive game to come back into the reckoning for a top spot. He defeated Indian GM Magesh Chandran from the white side of a Reti opening, in the exciting game.