Grandmaster Pendyala Harikrishna remained in sole lead after drawing with former world junior champion Peter Acs of Hungary in the sixth round of the Marx Gyorgy memorial International chess tournament in Paks, Hungary.
Even the rest day failed to liven up things in the second half of the category-15 tournament and for the third time in six rounds, and second time in a row, all the three games ended in draws, leaving the standings as they were at the end of the fourth round.
With just four more rounds remaining, Harikrishna has something to cherish so far in the tournament, as he is still in sole lead in the six-player double round-robin event.
The Indian took his tally to four points out of a possible six and Hungarian Grandmaster Zoltan Almasi and GM Zahar Efimenko of Ukraine continue to trail him by a half point.
In the sixth round, Almasi drew with compatriot Ferenc Berkes quite easily while Chinese GM Wang Yue achieved the same result against Efimenko in what was the longest game of the day.
The fourth place is held by Yue, who is on 3 points, while Berkes is next in line on 2.5 points. Peter Acs, who regained some composure after an easy draw with Harikrishna in round six, is still at the bottom of the table, having just 1.5 points with three draws and three losses.
Harikrishna opted for a safer approach as white against Peter Acs and opened with the queen pawn, and faced the Slav defense by the Hungarian. It was a topical variation on the board and Harikrishna could not dent black's solid play once the queen's got traded.
The rook and minor piece endgame was on board in quick time and with Harikrishna's knight not doing much compared to Acs' Bishop in the resulting position, the Indian played it safe and settled for a draw. The game lasted 34 moves.
Wang Yue showcased his opening preparation against Efimenko in a Rossolimo attack game where the former played black. Efimenko got a miniscule advantage out of the opening but Wang Yue remained on guard quite firmly with a timely pawn sacrifice in the rook and minor piece endgame and later transposed to a dead-equal opposite coloured Bishop ending to sign peace in 37 moves.
Almasi opted for a positional set up against Berkes in a Sicilian Nazdorf game but the latter simply did not give much operating space to his senior colleague. After just 24 moves, Almasi decided he did not have enough advantage and proposed a draw, which was immediately accepted.
Results round 6:
P Harikrishna (Ind, 4) drew with Peter Acs (Hun, 1.5); Zoltan Almasi (Hun, 3.5) drew with Ferenc Berkes (Hun, 2.5); Zahar Efimenko (Ukr, 3.5) drew with Wang Yue (Chn, 3).
The moves:
P Harikrishna v/s Peter Acs
1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Nf3 dxc4 5. a4 Bg4 6. Ne5 Bh5 7. f3 Nfd7 8. Nxc4 e5 9. Ne4 Bb4+ 10. Bd2 Qe7 11. Nxe5 Nxe5 12. dxe5 Nd7 13. Bxb4 Qxb4+ 14. Qd2 Qxd2+ 15. Kxd2 O-O-O 16. Ng3 Bg6 17. e4 Rhe8 18. Be2 Rxe5 19. Ke3 f6 20. a5 Re7 21. Kf2 Nc5 22. Rhd1 Rxd1 23. Rxd1 Nb3 24. Rd3 Nc1 25. Rc3 Nxe2 26. Nxe2 f5 27. exf5 Bxf5 28. a6 Bd7 29. axb7+ Kxb7 30. Rb3+ Kc7 31. Ra3 Kb6 32. Rb3+ Kc7 33. Ra3 Kb6 34. Rb3+ draw agreed.