Grandmaster Krishnan Sasikiran missed out on his chances before settling for a draw with GM Pavel Eljanov of Ukraine in the 8th and penultimate round of Dubai International Chess Championship in Dubai.
Pavel maintained his slender half point lead over nearest rivals with 6.5 points in his kitty and is now followed by GMs Shakhriyaz Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan, top seed Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu of Romania, Artashes Minasian of Armenia, Evegny Vladimirov of Kazakhstan, Viorel Iordachescu of Moldova, Alexander Goloshchapov and Evgenij Miroshnichenko of Ukraine, Carlsen Magnus of Norway, Sasikiran and P Harikrishna, who all have 6 points apiece.
Draws ruled the roost in the 8th round as players were only willing to consolidate their point position in this USD 41000 prize money tournament.
The big gainer on the day was 13-years old Magnus Carlsen who earned his final GM norm after holding Alexei Federov of Belarus to a draw and became the second youngest Grandmaster ever after Sergey Karjakin of Ukraine. Inching closer to their second IM norm were 11-year-old Parimarjan Negi who held IM Imad Hakki of Syria to a draw and Manthan Chokshi who caused a minor flutter defeating Women Grandmaster Firuza Velikhanli of Azerbaijan.
Sasikiran was clearly the better player against Eljanov but failed to strike upon the most effective path. Up against a rather off-beat set up in the the Queens Indian as black, Sasikiran embarked on a fine middle game plan that left Eljanov tottering even as the pieces got exchanged at regular intervals.
The Indian was looking good against Eljanov whose pieces were saddled with a difficult task to defend but Eljanov hung in with correct defensive moves that saved the day. The game lasted 36 moves.
Harikrishna drew with Iordachescu who failed to get a worthwhile advantage with his white pieces. The Ruy Lopez Brayer by the Indian cruised him to a comfortable position in the middle game after Eljanov decided to close the queen side and the peace was signed on the 30th move.
National champion Surya Shekhar Ganguly mis-managed a superior position and went down to GM Goran Dizdar of Croatia who opened with the French defence as black. Ganguly declined the draw offer by his opponent and seized the initiative with natural piece play.
However the Indian missed the thread amidst major complexities and found himself on the receiving end in the queen and rook endgame. Sweeping the king side pawn, Dizdar wrapped the issue after 70 moves handing Ganguly his second successive defeat.
After a slightly sluggish performance in the middle of the tournament, GM Evgeny Vladimirov of Kazakhstan, the coach of Indian team, came back in hunt for top honours with a crushing victory over GM Marat Dzhumaev of Uzbekistan.