Grandmaster Krishnan Sasikiran settled for a draw with Russian GM Alexander Galkin in the sixth round of the 'A1' section of the Aeroflot International open chess tournament in Moscow on Monday.
The positions atop the tables remained unchanged on a draw marred day and overnight leaders Emil Sutovsky of Israel and Andrei Kharlov of Russia continued sharing the lead on five points each out of a possible six after splitting the point between them.
Right behind the leaders was a pack of six players on 4.5 points apiece. They were Russians Vladimir Malakhov, Sergey Volkov, Valerij Filippov, Alexander Motylev and former World champion Alexander Khalifman and Moldovian Viktor Bologan.
With just three rounds remaining in this tournament, as many as 14 players including top seed Etienne Bacrto of France and highly regarded Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine were next in line on four points while Sasikiran was on three.
Only a strong finish can now propel the second highest rated Indian to a respectable position in the standing list.
In the next round Sasikiran will play Ashot Anastasian of Armenia.
Things did not move as expected for both Surya Shekhar Ganguly and Sandipan Chanda in the sixth round as the former could only manage a draw with Igor Kursnov of Russia. Chanda lost his second game on the trot, bowing to Robert Kempinski of Poland.
Surprisingly enough, both the Indians were yet to score a victory in this strong open only for players above 2550 ELO rating.
In the 'A2' section, Tejas Bakre was jolted by Denis Khismatullin of Russia. Having done quite well so far, Bakre's tournament standing suffered a severe setback as from joint 12th before the commencement of this round, he was pushed way down to joint 41st.
Taking advantage of a safety-first approach from most of the contestants, Wang Hao of China emerged as the sole leader with a fine victory over Russian Alexei Iljushin. Hao, 5 points, is now followed by 12 players with 4.5 points.
The other Indians in this section failed to impress as well. International Master S Kidambi signed peace with Elshan Moradiabadi of Iran while Parimarjan Negi achieved the same result against Igor Drozdov of Russia.
Women Grandmaster Eesha Karavade was on the receiving end against another Russian Igor Zakharevich while former Asian Junior girls champion Tania Sachdev's quest of final Women Grandmaster norm suffered a near-decisive setback after she went down fighting against GM Enrique Guerrero of Spain.
Sasikiran was surprised by a modest choice of opening by Galkin who did not want to risk anything despite playing white. Looking forward to play the sharp Arkhengelsk variation in the Ruy Lopez, the Indian was forced in to an early endgame by Galkin and it was just level position thereafter.
Amongst the victors of the day, Vladimir Malakhov was at his tactical best in crushing Alexander Areshchenko of Ukraine. The Sicilian defence employed by the Ukrainian met severe punishment in a Rossolimo attack and in just 17 moves, Malakhov coasted to a stupendous win.
In other important games of round 6, Filippov defeated compatriot Konstantin Sakaev while Motylev brushed aside the challenge of Ukrainian Zahar Efimenko.
