Grandmaster Abhijit Kunte was involved in yet another short draw with Grandmaster Stuart Conquest of England in the sixth round of the Hastings International Chess Congress in Hastings, England, on Saturday.
With just three rounds left in the category 13 tournament, top seeded Grandmaster Vladimir Epishin made his presence felt with a clinical victory over compatriot and International Master Alexander Cherniaev and emerged as the sole leader on 4.5 points.
Grandmaster Vasilios Kotronias of Cyprus follows the leader a half point behind while Grandmaster Jonathan Rowson of Scotland is a close third on 3.5.
In joint fourth place are Kunte, defending champion Grandmaster Peter Heine Nielsen of Denmark and erstwhile leader Mark Hebden of England with three points each.
Keteryna Lahno of Ukraine stands seventh on 2.5 amongst the ten contenders.
Kunte played his second successive white in the event against Conquest but could not break the defences of the Englishman, who is struggling with his form. The game started with a Slav defence but Conquest, transposed it into a closed Grunfeld with black pieces and had an easy game on hand as Kunte allowed a thematic central breakthrough early in the middle game.
At the time of the peace agreement on move 19, two minor pieces and a couple of pawns had been traded and the position was just about level.
Epishin, rated 2658 before the start of the event, lost a whopping 25 Elo points as the new rating list came in force in the new year.
However, he is determined to make amends and it was evident in his game against Cherniaev, who played black.
After starting out with Semi Slav, Cherniaev found himself in a transposition to the Queen's Gambit declined position and found it hard to equalise as Epishin made a decisive foray in his territory.
Through a perfectly timed manoeuvre, the Russian won a pawn and it was soon curtains for Cherniaev. The game lasted 34 moves. Another fine victory of the day was that of IM Kateryna Lahno, who proved her potential as a world-beater in a tactical skirmish against Mark Hebden.
Playing white, Lahno seized the initiative in a Ruy Lopez game and uncorked a fine blow to win an exchange in the early stages of the middle game itself. The rest was easy and Hebden called it a day on move 47.
Rowson stuck to the Queen pawn opening as white and faced the Kings Indian defence from Kotronias. The pawn sacrifice variation of the Samisch yielded the latter adequate counter play on the king side and Rowson decided against pressing hard. The draw was agreed to in just 24 moves.
Nielsen tried hard but did not succeed against the solid defence of Gormally. The Dane could boast of a definite advantage after rather passive play by Gormally in the middle game, arising out of a Queen's Indian defence.
However, exchanges at regular intervals enabled Gormally to improve his position and the truce was signed when his counter play on the queen side began to look threatening. The game ended after 32 moves.
Results (Round 6): Vladimir Epishin (4.5, Rus) beat Alexander Cherniaev (2.5, Rus); Jonathan Rowson (3.5, Sco) drew Vasilios Kotronias (4, Cyp); Abhijit Kunte (3) drew Stuart Conquest (2, Eng); Peter Heine Nielsen (3, Den) drew Daniel Gormally (2, Eng); Kateryna Lahno (2.5, Ukr) beat Mark Hebden (3, Eng).
Standings after round 6: 1. Epishin 4.5; 2. Kotronias 4.0; 3. Rowson 3.5; 4-6. Kunte, Nielsen, Hebden 3.0 each; 7-8. Lahno, Cherniaev 2.5 each; 9-10. Gormally, Conquest 2.0 each.