Veteran GM Aleksej Aleksandrov of Belarus surged to the top of the leaderboard at the Aurionpro International Grandmaster Chess Tournament at the World trade Centre on Monday. He beat GM Sanikidze Tornike of Georgia to lead the pack with 6.5 points out of a possible 7, positioning himself as the clear favourite with two rounds left.

In the junior section, Candidate Master Madhesh Kumar from Pondicherry emerged as the sole leader beating Ramanu Mishra to move to 6.5 out of 7.