Parimarjan draws with Ghaem Maghami; joint second now

Grandmaster Viorel Iordachescu of Moldova emerged as the sole leader from a six-way lead in the previous round at the expense of GM Tigran Kotanjian of Armenia. The Moldovan took his tally to a very impressive 5.5 points out of a possible six and is now a half point clear of the nearest eight rivals including Negi and Maghami who both have 5 points each.

There was a little drama on the top board when Parimarjan refused to budge when Maghami said the slight cold that the Indian suffered was troubling him because of constant sneezing and cough. Parimarjan was cool to tackle the situation and continued playing nonchalantly to get a better position out of a Sicilian Najdorf.
However, Maghami could find some solace in the counter play that came his way and got the half point.

2008 world junior champion Abhijeet Gupta was quite unlucky to miss out on a winning opportunity against Gadir Guseinov of Azerbaijan.Playing the white side of a King's Indian defense, Abhijeet went for the blood with a fantastic piece sacrifice in the middle game that crippled the pieces of Guseinov. As the game progressed it appeared easy pickings for Abhijeet but a late blunder by him turned the tide completely.

Barring Negi, the other Indian Grandmasters continued to suffer as S Arun Prasad had to concede a draw to talented Shiven Khosla who played white. GM R R Laxman also could not improve his standing much in the event after he was held to a draw by Iranian lady Ghader Pour Shayesteh.

D Harika retained chances of her second Grandmaster norm by holding Grandmaster Tamaz Gelashvili of Georgia. After feeling a bit sad about the fifth round when she had thought that the game had been agreed as drawn against Eduardo Itturizaga and eventually losing, Harika was a picture of confidence as she kept Gelashvili's pieces at bay.

After a flying start that had netted him three victories against Grandmasters, Tejas Ravichandran succumbed to his third straight loss Harutjunyan Gevorg of Armenia. Despite the loss, Tejas still has excellent chances to make an International Master norm.

Important and Indian results round 6 (Indians unless specified):
Parimarjan Negi (5) drew with Ghaem Maghami Ehsan (Iri, 5); Tigran Kotanjian (Arm, 4.5) lost to Viorel Iordachescu (Mda, 5.5); Sanikidze Tornike (Geo, 5) drew with Eduardo Iturrizaga (Ven, 5); Gabriel Sargissian (Arm, 4) lost to Aleksej Aleksandrov (Blr, 5); Sergey Volkov  (Rus, 5) beat Konstantine Shanava  (Geo, 4); Abhijeet Gupta (4) lost to Gadir Guseinov (Aze, 5); Eltaj Safarli (Aze, 5) beat Mammadov Zaur Fazahir Oglu (Aze, 4); D Harika (4) drew with Tamaz Gelashvili (Geo, 4); Abhishek Kelkar (4) drew with Vadim Malakhatko (Bel, 4); Savchenko Stanislav (Ukr, 4) drew with S Satyapragyan (4); Alexei Fedorov (Blr, 4) beat Padmini Rout (3); Shiven Khosla (3.5) drew with S Arun Prasad (3.5); Lopez Martinez Josep Manuel (Esp, 3.5) drew with S Meenakshi (3.5); Hejazipour Mitra (Iri, 3) lost to M R Lalith Babu (4); Ghader Pour Shayesteh (Iri, 3.5) drew with R R Laxman (3.5); Harutjunyan Gevorg (Arm, 4) beat Tejas Ravichandran (3); Antonio Viani D'cunha (3) lost to Khader Sami (Jor, 4); Salah Romany (Egy, 3) lost to M Shyam Sundar (4); Mehdi Samer (Egy, 3) lost to Eesha Karavade (4); Al-Housa Khalil (Ple, 3) lost to Ramnath Bhuvanesh (4); M R Venkatesh (3.5) beat Makropoulou Marina (Gre, 2.5); Afshari Mohammadreza (Iri, 3.5) beat Sahaj Grover (3.5); Chinmay Kulkarni (3) drew with Vinod Bhagwat (3); P I Johny (3) drew with Hrabinska Myroslava (Ukr, 2.5); Rafee Mohd Hayel (Syr, 2) lost to Karma Pandya (3); Manjunath Jain (2) lost to Mona Khaled (3); M Vigram (2) lost to Pabalan Rocky (Phi, 3); Arellano Robert (Phi, 1.5) lost to K Sudharsan Surya (3); Yarur Elsaca Daniel (Chi, 2) beat M Priadarshni (1): N Madhuri (0.5) lost to Abdulaziz Abdulla (Uae, 1.5). PTI Corr SHN SHN 04111950