Grover in joint lead in Gurgaon chess

Grandmaster Sahaj Grover maintained his joint lead with 5.5 points after splitting the point with Russian Grandmaster Alexander Evdokimov in the sixth round of the Gurgaon International Grandmasters Chess Tournament at Suncity School here Sunday.

Playing safe with dark pieces in Grunfeld defence game, Grover agreed to split the point with his Russian rival in just 17 moves while another 17-move peace treaty on the top board battle between Ukrainian Grandmaster Kravtsiv Martyn and second seed Oliver Barbosa made the leader's table intact in the Rs.10,11,000 event.

A pack of 11 players, including Grandmasters John Paul Gomes of Philippines, Tornike Sanikidze of Georgia and Raset Ziatdinov of the United States, are sharing second spot with 5 points.

Gomez beat Indian International Master Vikramaditya Kulkarni while Sanikidze and Ziatdinov got the better off C.R.G. Krishna and Tillayaev Ulugbek of Uzbekistan, respectively. International Masters Prasanna Rao and N. Srinath split the point to be among the 11.

Important Round 6 results: Kravtsiv Martyn (UKR) (5.5) drew with Oliver Barbosa (PHI) (5.5); Alexander Evdokimov (RUS) (5) drew with Sahaj Grover (5.5); Prasanna Rao (5) drew with Srinath N. (5); John Paul Gomez (PHI) (5) beat Vikramaditya Kulkarani (4.5); Visakh N.R. (4.5) drew with Merab Gagunashvili (GEO) (4.5); C.R.G. Krishna (4) lost to Tornike Sanikidze (GEO) (5); Arun Prasad (4.5) drew with Pradeep Kumar R.A. (4.5); Akmal Faizulaev (UZB) (4.5) drew with Eldar Gasanov (UKR) (4.5); Abhishek Kelkar (4) lost to Swayams Mishra (5); Shyam Nikil (5) beat Akash P.C. Iyer (4); Niranjan Navalgund (4.5) drew with Rajesh V.A.V. (4.5); Satyapragyan (4.5) drew with Chinmay Kulkarni (4.5); Raset Ziatdinov (USA) (5) beat Tillyaev Ulugbek (UZB) (4); Sameer Kathmale (5) beat Joshi G.B. (4); Deepthamsh Reddy (4.5) drew with Kunal M. (4.5); Karthikeyan P. (5) beat Bobir Sattarov (UZB) (4); Nitin S. (4) lost to Karthik V. (5); Shivananda B.S. (4.5) drew with Sarvinoz Kurbonboeva (4.5); Valeriy Neverov (UKR) (4.5) beat Ram S. Krishnan (3.5); S. Kidambi (4.5) beat Vikramjit Singh (3.5).