P Harikrishna split the point with Canadian Pascal Charbonneau in a game of fluctuating fortunes to slip to the tied third spot after the seventh round of the eighth Montreal International Chess tournament here.
Harkrishna shares the third position with American GM Gata Kamsky. The Indian adopted the Queens Gambit, which was declined by Charbonneau, who took the initiative with some sharp moves early on.
Harikrishna sacrificed a pawn in the early middle game and obtained excellent compensation by exposing his opponent’s castled King.
He continued to improve his position and was in with a good winning chance but the game took a dramatic turn on the 26th move when Harikrishna blundered away a bishop. Charbonneau returned the favour by blundering on the 40th move and allowed material parity. The resulting position was clearly drawn and the players signed peace after the 42nd move.
Meanwhile Dutch Grandmaster Sergei Tiviakov continued his brilliant form and remained the sole leader by beating Polish Grandmaster Kamil Miton.
Results: Round 7: Sergei Tiviakov (Ned, 5.5) bt Kamil Miton (Pol, 3.5); Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukr, 5.0) bt Mark Bluvshtein (Can, 2.5); Pentala Harikrishna (Ind, 4.5) drew with Pascal Charbonneau (Can, 2.0); Nigel Short (Eng, 1.0) drew with Gata Kamsky (USA, 4.5); Emil Sutovsky (Isr, 2.5) drew with Pavel Eljanov (Ukr, 4.0).