World Junior champion P Harikrishna settled for his third draw in a row but still grabbed the joint second spot after the third round of the category 16 Dos Hermanas chess tournament in Spain.
Harikrishna settled for a draw against top seed Alexey Dreev of Russia but was benefited by Ukrainian boy-wonder Sergey Karjakin's fantastic win over Lenier Dominguez of Cuba and overnight joint leader Cordoba losing to Russia's Alecamder Rustemov.
Karjakin meanwhile emerged as the sole leader on 2.5 points from the possible three.
Harikrishna, along with Dreev, defending champion Rustemov, his compatriot Oleg Korneev, Zurab Azmaiparashvili of Georgia, Temour Radjabov of Azerbaijan, Ruben Felgear of Argentina and local star Miguel Illescas Cordoba are behind the leader with 1.5 points apiece while Cominguez is a distant last with just 0.5 point in his kitty.
Six rounds still remain in this Euros 6000 first prize tournament being played on a round-robin basis between 10 players.
Harikrishna had a won position against Dreev in the last Chess Olympiad at Calvia in Spain which he squandered away to lose the game eventually.
Not that it played in any decisive way on the mind of the Indian but cautious aggression was the order of the day for the Grandmaster.
Dreev, who has an Elo rating of 2703 points, started with his pet Slav defence as black and did not look in any trouble right till the end of the game even though only Harikrishna was seen pressing for the victory for the major part.
The middle game witnessed a series of exchanges giving Harikrishna a miniscule advanatage in the ensuing rook and opposite colour Bishops endgame and precise piece play enabled him to knock down one pawn on the king side.
However, the nature of the position remained within the boundaries of a draw and after fighting it out for as many as 87 moves the players decided to sign peace in the day's longest game.
Karjakin showcased his positional side in his fine effort against Dominguez who played the black side of a Sicilian Nazdorf. Employing the sharp English attack, the Ukrainian was in control of the situation right from the early stages of the middle game and gave little chances after knocking down a pawn. The game lasted till move 62 but by the 40th move itself there were little doubts about the outcome of the game.
The other decisive game of this biennial event was played by 2003 winner Rustemov who scored his first victory in the tournament, accounting for overnight joint leader Cordoba.
In fact, it turned out to be an elementary endgame lesson for the senior Spaniard after he went for the Grunfeld defence and was caught unawares in one of the tactical variations.
Not able to find the most suitable replies, Cordoba had to part with an exchange and subsequent exchanges led to a king and pawns endgame wherein Rustemov's King proved to be much superior. Cordoba threw in the towel in just 38 moves.
The other two games of the day had little to offer for the followers of the game. Radjabov settled for draw with Felgaer in just 16 moves while Korneev and Azmaiparashvili took just 11 moves for the same result.
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