Indian Grandmasters Pendyala Harikrishna and Abhijit Kunte maintained their slender half point lead after settling for a draw among themselves in the ninth round of the Smith and Williamson British chess championship in Edinburgh, Scotland, on Thursday.
Both Harikrishna and Abhijit have 7 points apiece in their kitty and are half a point ahead of nearest contenders top seed GM Vassilios Kotronias of Cyprus, GM Jonathan Rowson of Scotland, British challenge GM Peter Wells and one-time leader GM Ziaur Rahman of Bangladesh.
A pack of 10 players is also in reckoning for top honours, having 6 points each. They are Grandmaster Surya Shekhar Ganguly, WGM S Vijayalakshmi, IM Tejas Bakre, GM Joseph Gallagher of Switzerland, GM Paul Motwani of Scotland, IM Reefat Bin Sattar of Bangladesh, WGM Arakhamia-Grant Ketevan of Georgia and Englishmen IM Daniel Gormally, IM Pert Nicholas and Stewart Haslinger.
The battle is likely to hot up with just two more rounds remaining in this 10,000-pound sterling tournament.
The Indians, barring Harikrishna and Abhijit, had a tough day. The biggest losers from the Indian perspective were GM norm aspirant Tejas Bakre and Swati Ghate.
Aspiring for his third GM norm, Tejas went down fighting to Rowson in a wild game while Swati fell prey to the fine technique of compatriot IM Neelotpal Das.
Swati, however, completed the formalities of her WGM norm despite the loss and will now look to increase the number of norm games for her benefit.
The GM norm chances of Sunderrajan Kidambi evaporated after he lost to Arakhamia with black pieces and remained on 5 points while GM Dibyendu Barua drew with Rafe Martyn of England.
Among the Indian women, only Nisha Mohota managed to carve out a victory, defeating Thomas Nixon of England. National champion Aarthie Ramaswamy was involved in a draw with Matthew Anderton while Esha Karvade lost to Simon Williams of England.
Abhijit and Harikrishna played a risk free game which proved a right tactic in the end as nobody could catch up with them in the lead. The Petroff defence by Harikrishna as black prompted Abhijit to exchange queens early in the opening and the rest was just a dull affair. Two more minor pieces and a rook changed hands before the peace treaty was signed on the 23rd move.
Tejas had to pay heavy price for his justified double edged game with Rowson. Playing black, Tejas opted for his pet Sicilian Classical defence but was surprised early with the choice of Velimirovic attack by Rowson.
What followed was tactical complication with Tejas' king stuck in the centre and the Indian had to lose a pawn to come out of his difficulties. Rowson thwarted any possible counterplay thereafter and clinched the issue in 49 moves.
Important results (Indians unless specified):
Round 9: Abhijit Kunte (7) drew P Harikrishna (7); Peter Wells (6, Eng) drew Ziaur Rahman (6.5, Ban); Jonathan Rowson (6.5, Sco) beat Tejas Bakre (6); Vassilios Kotronias (6.5, Cyp) beat Matthew Turner (5.5, Eng); Reefat Bin Sattar (6, Ban) drew Surya Shekhar Ganguly (6); Paul Motwani (6, Sco) drew Daniel Gormally (6, Eng); Joseph Gallagher (6, Sui) drew S Vijayalakshmi (6); Stuart Conquest (5.5, Eng) drew Neil McDonald (5.5, Eng); Ameet Ghasi (5.5, Eng) drew Aaron Summerscale (5.5, Eng); Nicholas Pert (6, Eng); Simon Ansell (5, Eng); Enamul Hossain (5.5, Ban) drew Laurence Webb (5.5, Eng); Arakhamia-Grant Ketevan (6, Geo) beat Sundararajan Kidambi (5); Stewart Haslinger (6, Eng) beat Jack Rudd (5, Eng); John Shaw (5, Sco) drew Gurpreet Pal Singh (5); Swati Ghate (4.5) lost to Neelotpal Das (5.5); Rafe Martyn (4.5,Eng) drew Dibyendu Barua (4.5); S Meenakshi (4.5) drew Joe Redpath (4.5, Eng); Matthew Anderton (4.5, Eng) drew Aarthie Ramaswamy (4.5); Simon Williams (4.5, Eng) beat Eesha Karvade (3.5); Thomas Nixon (3.5, Eng) lost to Nisha Mohota.