Former World junior champion Pendyala Harikrishna inched closer to his maiden title on Hungarian soil after a quick draw with Grandmaster Wang Yue of China, in the ninth and penultimate round of the third Marx Gyorgy memorial International chess tournament in Paks, Hungary.
Harikrishna took his tally to an unassailable six points, a full point clear of nearest rival Grandmaster Zahar Efimenko of Ukraine, who drew with defending champion GM Zoltan Almasi of Hungary.
The other game of the day was also a stalemate, between Hungarian GMs Peter Acs and Ferenc Berkes.
With Harikrishna just a draw away from the title, and Efimenko almost sure of second place, the fight for third spot is still on, with Almasi and Wang Yue level on 4.5 points.
Berkes is sole fifth in the category-15 double round-robin event on four points while Acs is now firmly at the bottom of the standings on three points.
In the final round, Harikrishna will battle it out with Berkes, who will have the advantage of playing white. However, going by the trend here so far, it seems unlikely that Berkes will give it a real shot against Harikrishna and a draw seems the most likely result.
The factor favouring Harikrishna is that even if he loses and Efimenko is not able to win against Peter Acs, the Indian will still win the title outright.
The other match of the final round is between Wang Yue and Almasi.
Harikrishna did the needful against Wang Yue who played the black side of a Slav defense. The Indian declared his peaceful intentions by going for the exchange variation and the result was a draw in just ten moves.
As if taking a cue from Harikrishna, Peter Acs soon followed suit against Berkes after just 14 moves of a Sicilian defense game. Almasi tried a bit harder but Zahar Efimenko was up to the task in defending a slightly inferior endgame arising out of a Queen's Indian defense. After routine exchanges, the players reached a knight and pawns endgame and peace was signed in 47 moves.
Much to the disappointment of spectators, the penultimate round failed to yield any decisive games. This was the fifth day out of nine rounds played so far when not a single game produced a result.
So far, there have been only seven decisive games in this tournament out of a possible 27 and Harikrishna has been involved in three of them.
Results round 9:
P Harikrishna (Ind, 6) drew with Wang Yue (Chn, 4.5); Zoltan Almasi (Hun, 4.5) drew with Zahar Efimenko (Ukr, 5); Peter Acs (Hun, 3) drew with Ferenc Berkes (Hun, 4).
Standings after round 9: 1. Harikrishna 6; 2. Efimenko 5; 3-4. Yue, Almasi 4.5 each; 5. Berkes 4; 6. Acs 3.
The moves: P Harikrishna v/s Wang Yue
1.d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. cxd5 cxd5 5. Bf4 Nc6 6. Nf3 Bf5 7. e3 e6 8. Bd3 Bxd3 9. Qxd3 Bd6 10. Bxd6 Qxd6 draw agreed.