Kolkata, Sep 8 - Grand Master Le Quang Liem of Vietnam continued to lead but was joined at the top by GM Anton Filippov of Uzbekistan after the eighth round of the 4th Kolkata Open Grandmaster Chess tournament here Tuesday.

Even though Le (6.5) had the advantage of the white pieces he agreed to a quick draw against the defending champion GM Viktor Laznicka (6) of the Czech Republic. The game was a Queens Gambit declined and lasted for only twenty four moves.

The second board game was a fierce encounter with Indian GM Sandipan Chanda (5.5) making a valiant effort to win against GM Anton Filippov (6.5) of Uzbekistan.

Even though he had the black pieces, Chanda managed to gain the positional advantage of the double bishops and pressed hard for victory.

However, he fell into acute time trouble and was forced to give up a piece to eventually resign in a hopeless position on the seventy fourth turn.

The third board game was another disappointing draw between the two Azerbaijan Grandmasters, top seed Shakriyar Mamedyarov (5.5) and Eltaj Safarli (5.5).

India's International Master S.Satyapragyan (6) defeated GM Mikheil Mchedlishvili (5) of Georgia to earn his Grandmaster norm.

Among other Indian players, IM R.R.Laxman and IM B.Adhiban got creditable draws against GM Parimarjan Negi and GM Rauf Mamedov respectively. Both of them need half a point in the next round to get their GM norms. If it is achieved, it would be Laxman's third and final norm and Adhiban's first.

World U-12 Champion Sayantan Das made his maiden IM norm by defeating GM Enamul Hossain of Bangladesh. Other Indian players who earned their IM norms are WGM Nisha Mohata and C.Praveen Kumar. All the players who have achieved norms have earned nine game norms with a round to spare.

Top board results :-

GM Le Quang Liem (6.