Former World Chess Champion Grandmaster Ruslan Ponomariov lifted the Pamplona chess title after he drew his seventh round game with India's Pentala Harikrishna.

Ponomariov, who lost in the finals of the recently concluded World Cup to Levon Aronian, scored 5 points from 7 games while Harikrishna finished with 4.5 points.

Earlier, Ponomariov scored a brilliant victory in his sixth round game to become the sole leader while fifth round joint leader Harikrishna drew his game.

Interestingly, all the opponents in the sixth round were within half a point from each other. This margin between the two top players proved to be crucial on the final day.