In-form Nihal Sarin maintained his joint second place after a four-round draw with Russia’s Pavel Ponkratov at the $425,000 FIDE Grand Swiss Chess Tournament in Riga, Latvia on Saturday. France’s Alireza Firoza was ahead of the pack with 3.5 points.
It was a day of mixed luck for the 15-member Indian contingent.
P. Harikrishna registered his second consecutive win, SP Sethuraman drew with Boris Gelfand, while D. Gukesh and K. Sashikaran continued his unbeaten run.
Among women, fourth seed D. Harika remained unbeaten and finished second after a draw with China’s Zhu Xiner.
Results (4th round, involving Indians): to open: Nihal Sarin (3) drew with Pavel Ponkratov (Russia, 3); Vladimir Fedoseev (Rus, 2.5) drew with D. Gukesh (2.5); Vladislav Artemyev (Rus, 2.5) wrote K. drew with Shashikiran (2.5); Samuel Savian (USA, 3) bt r. Pragyanananda (2); Sergei Movsyan (arms, 1.5) lost to P. Harikrishna (2.5); Sanan Sjugirov (Rus, 2.5) bt Arjun Erigasi (1.5); Jordan van Forrest (Ned, 2) bt Surya Shekhar Ganguly (1); Maxim Matlakov (Russia, 1.5) drew with Raunak Sadhvani (1.5); SP Sethuraman (1) drew with Boris Gelfand (Isar, 1.5); Jonas Buhjal Barge (Denmark, 2) bt b Adhiban (0.5). Woman: Zhu Xiner (Chn, 3) draws with D. Harika (3); Padmini Raut (2) lost to Alina Kashlinskaya (Russia, 3); M. Anna Sargsyan (arm, 2.5) draws with Vantika Agarwal (2.5); R Vaishali (2) bt Meruart Kamlidenov (Kaz, 1); Divya Deshmukh (1) draws with Sophie Millett (Fr, 1).
.