Parimarjan surged into the joint lead with 5.5 points after Sriram and Pavel settled for a draw in 18 moves.
IM K Priyadharshan continued to impress in the championship and held top seed Alexey Dreev of Russia to a creditable draw. Earlier in the fourth and fifth round encounters, Priyadharshan beat GM Pablo Lafuente of Argentina and Marat Dzhumaev.
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