Indian GM Bharathakoti holds Paravyan in World Rapid Chess championship

Little-known Indian Grandmaster Harsha Bharatakoti continued his good run in the Rapid section of the FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championships here, holding higher-rated Russian GM David Paravyan to a draw in the sixth round on Monday.

The 21-year old Bharathakoti (Elo 2484) shared the point with Paravyan (Elo 2671) in a 42-move game in the Open category. The Indian player had started with wins over Rauf Mamedov (Azerbaijan), Vladislav Kovalev and Voldomyr Onyschuk, all rated higher than him, before world champion Magnus Carlsen ended the fine run.

He subsequently drew with Sergei Movessian before the game against Paravyan.

Bharathakoti lies in 23rd place with four points, the best among the Indians in action in the tournament.

Among the other Indians, GM Vidit S Gujrathi lost to American ace Fabiano Caruana while Nihal Sarin was beaten by Aleksey Dreev (Russia).

GMs Gujrathi (in 47th place), S L Narayanan (in 42nd place), D Gukesh (53rd) and Mitrabha Guha (61st) have 3.5 points.

In the women's event, the country's top player Koneru Humpy has 3.5 points with two wins and three draws after five rounds as does R Vaishali who has scored three victories to go with a draw apart from a loss. In the fifth round games on Monday, Humpy beat Julia Movsesian (Czech Republic) while Vaishali was defeated by Nana Dzagnidze (Georgia).