Grandmaster Krishnan Sasikiran yet again slipped to joint second spot after drawing with GM Artashes Minasian of Armenia in the seventh round of the Dubai International Chess Championship at the Dubai Chess and Culture Club in Dubai.
GM Pavel Eljanov of Ukraine shot into sole lead following a hard-fought victory over GM Alexei Federov of Belarus.
Eljanov, on 6 points, is closely followed by top seeded Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu of Romania, Azerbaijani World Junior champion Shakhriyaz Mamedyarov, Viorel Iordachescu of Moldova, Alexander Goloshchapov of Ukraine, Norwegian whiz-kid Magnus Carlsen, Minasian, Sasikiran and Pendyala Harikrishna, who all have 5.5 points each in their kitty.
With just two rounds remaining in this $41,000 tournament, another pack of eight players is in contention for top honours with five points apiece.
The Indian IM norm aspirants suffered a setback in their quest as Parimarjan Negi and Manthan Chokshi went down fighting against Russian GM Alexey Kuzmin and Armenian GM Karen Asrian respectively. Also losing was National champion Surya Shekhar Ganguly who failed to counter the bubbling energy of 13-years old Carlsen and IM D V Prasad, who fell back on a 50 per cent score after losing to Goran Dizdar of Croatia.
On the brighter side Harikrishna was in his element in beating GM Zahar Efimenko of Ukraine from the white side of a King's Indian defence. Opting for the Fianchetto variation, Harikrishna got a positional edge and slowly increased his advantage in the centre with thematic manoeuvres.
In the late middle game, the Ukrainian fell prey to a well-disguised pawn sacrifice by the Indian and found himself a pawn less after the dust subsided. Not giving any chances thereafter, Harikrishna traded Queens at the opportune juncture and romped home in 47 moves.
Sasikiran maintained a miniscule advantage for the major part of the game against Minasian but could not really convert that with his white pieces as his opponent posted stiff resistance.
The middle game arising from a Torre attack was on expected lines and pieces got exchanged at regular intervals leaving Sasikiran with a better placed Knight against Bishop.
However, as it turned out in the end, black had just about sufficient replies to maintain the balance. The draw was agreed to in 49 moves.
Speaking about the game Sasikiran agreed that he had better prospects in the middle game but Minasian played quite well.
"He emerged with a slightly better bishop in the final position and in time pressure we took a draw," added the second seed.
The big winner of the day was Carlsen, who looks set to become the youngest Grandmaster after his spectacular victory over Ganguly who played the black side of a Trompowski opening.
Carlsen got a superior position right after the opening that witnessed quick trade of queens and slowly exerted pressure on both flanks to win a pawn and the game in 43 moves. Carlsen is now just a half point away from his third and final GM norm.
Women Grandmaster Aarthie Ramaswamy lost to Shanava Konstantine while her husband GM R B Ramesh was held to a draw by Nadera Barlo.
The other Indians in the fray had good results with Abhijeet Gupta, IM Deepan Chakravarthy and IM Rahul Shetty scoring over A R Saleh Jasiom, Asylguzhin Radik and Janahi Zeyaad respectively.
Eljanov crashed through the defences of Federov from a King's Indian defence game where the latter played black. The Ukrainian spotted a fantastic checkmating net in a Queen and opposite colour Bishops endgame that proved decisive.
