India's grandmaster Aravindh Chithambaram kept himself in joint lead after a draw with Iranian Amin Tabatabaei in the fourth round of Sharjah Masters chess tournament in Sharjah on Saturday.
Chithamabaram took his tally to 3.5 points out of a possible four and shares the lead with local star A R Saleh Salem and Hans Moke Niemann of United States in the US$ 52000 prize money tournament.
With five rounds still to come, top seed and World No 7 Arjun Erigaise of India is not far behind the leaders with his second straight win coming at the expense of Manuel Petrosyan of Armenia.
Giving Arjun company on three points are compatriot Abhimanyu Puranik and Sankalp Gupta who both drew their matches against Sam Shankland of United States and Russian talent Volodar Murzin respectively.
Chithamabaram survived by the skin of his teeth against Amin Tabatabaei. The Nimzo Indian by the Indian landed in slight difficulties in the middle game and Tabatabaei made most of the opportunities after the trade of the queens.
Tabatabaei launched what appeared to be a winning attack against the black king with his rooks and knight and Aravindh was in a difficult position soon after. It was on the 48th move that the Iranian committed a blunder, letting the Indian come back in the game.
Arjun employed the French defense as black against Petrosyan. Gaining an early lead in development, Arjun came up with a timely blow through an exchange sacrifice and the resulting endgame was simply winning.
Among other Indians in the fray, Bharath Subramaniyam scored a spectacular victory over S L Narayanan. Playing the white side of a Rossolimo, Bharath showed he is meant to go higher as he knocked down a handful of pawns. The youngster advanced his pawns almost at will and Narayanan could never really get going.
Important and Indian results Round 4 (Indians unless stated):
A R Saleh Salem (UAE, 3.5) drew with Hans Moke Niemann (USA, 3.5); Amin Tabatabaei (IRI, 3) drew with Aravindh Chithambaram (3.5); Sam Shankland (USA, 3) drew with Abhimanyu Puranik (3); Volodar Murzin (FIDE, 3) drew with Sankalp Gupta (3); Manuel Petrosyan (ARM, 2) lost to Erigaisi Arjun (3); Maurizzi Marc`andria (FRA, 2.5) drew with P Iniyan (2.5); Nihal Sarin (2.5) beat Mihail Nikitenko (BLR, 1.5); V Pranav (2) drew with Haik Martirosyan (ARM, 2); Luca Moroni Jr (ITA, 2) drew with Raunak Sadhwani (2); Sanal Vahap (TUR, 1.5) lost to Leon Luke Mendonca (2.5); B Adhiban (2) drew with Aditya Mittal (2); Bharath Subramaniyam (2) beat S L Narayanan (1); Pranav Anand (2) beat Tamas Banusz (POL, 1); Raja Rithvik (1) lost to Abhijeet Gupta (2); Gholami Orimi Mahdi (IRI, 2) beat S P Sethuraman (1); Alisher Suleymenov (UZB, 0.5) drew with Aditya Samant (0.5).
