Grandmaster Sahaj Grover faltered and went down to Alexander Areshchenko of Ukraine in the eighth and penultimate round of Al Ain Classic International Chess tournament to fall out of contention here.
After getting a position that was close to being dynamically balanced out of a Jaenisch opening as black, Grover went for an erroneous plan that saw him first lose a pawn and then his bid to continue the attack did not materialise, as Areshchenko picked up another pawn to force matters in the crucial encounter.
Grandmasters Tigran Petrosian of Armenia and Vladimir Onischuk of Ukraine emerged as the two leaders on 6.5 points each with just one round remaining in the 50000 USD prize money tournament being under FIDE's Swiss rules.
Petrosian defeated overnight leader Gaioz Nigalidze of Georgia, while Onischuk had it easy against Sergey Volkov of Russia.
Vidi Gujrathi and Sandipan Chanda are in the group of eight players sharing the third spot on six points each and still in with a chance to emerge as one of the co-winner in the tournament.
Gujrathi came up with a splendid effort to beat compatriot Deep Sengupta, while Chanda also secured a fine victory at the expense of V Vishnu Prasanna in the penultimate round.
Among other Indians in the fray, defending champion Abhijeet Gupta continued with his comeback act and put it across International Master Bachana Morchiashvili of Georgia to jump to 5.5 points and is now giving company to Grover in this point group.
It will be a test of nerves in the final round, especially for Gujrathi and Chanda who will take on top seed Yuriy Kryvoruchko of Ukraine and Sergei Zhigalko of Belarus respectively. A victory could well mean a shared first place, but a loss can put them out of top ten too.
Gujrathi is known to be one of the rising stars of the country and he was in his elements against Sengupta. Playing the white side of a Queen pawn game, Gujrathi gave nothing away and seized the initiative when Sengupta sacrificed a pawn in the middle game for some active play.
As the game progressed, Gujrathi converted to a better rook and opposite coloured Bishops endgame wherein his technique was immaculate.
