Grandmaster Krishnan Sasikiran could only salvage a draw with GM Jonny Hector of Sweden in the sixth round of the Sigeman & Co. chess tournament in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Dutch Grandmaster Jan Timman continued with his great form and defeated GM Viorel Iordachescu of Moldova to maintain his sole lead with five points out of a possible six.

Top seed Hikaru Nakamura of United States made sure that Timman remained within striking distance from him after defeating GM Sune Berg Hansen of Denmark. The American took his tally to 4.5 points in this category-13 event.

Following the draw, Sasikiran slipped to joint third spot on 4 points where he now has company of GM Curt Hansen of Denmark while Iordachescu is sole fifth on 3.5 points.

With just three rounds remaining, the other contestants in the round-robin tournament are simply out of race. Dane Davor Palo has 2.5 points, Sune Berg, Hansen and Hector have just 2 points while Swede Tiger Hillarp Persson is on 1.5, a half point adrift of compatriot Emil Hermansson.

Sasikiran failed to capitalise on his chances and conceded a draw after attaining a clearly superior endgame.

Earlier, in the opening, the Indian playing white had faced the Slav defence and in fact Hector had a perfectly balanced position when he went haywire in trying to equalise sooner. As it turned out thereafter, Sasikiran had a firmly placed rook on the 7th rank and according to a popular computer programme he could have obtained a decisive advantage on the 35th move itself.

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