A late blunder cost Indian Grandmaster Aravindh Chithambaram dearly as he not only lost the game to Iran's Bardiya Daneshvar in the seventh round of the Sharjah Masters but also his lead.
From his pole position, Aravindh slipped to the joint third spot as Sam Shankland defeated American compatriot Hans Moke Niemann to match the Iranian on points.
Aravindh was at the top of his game till he blundered. It looked like a rosy scenario wherein the Indian went wrong only at the nth hour.
The tactical skirmish that ensued would still be to Aravindh's benefit but a late blunder settled the game in Iranian's favour.
Another Indian, Arjun Erigaisi could not crack the solid defences of Parham Maghsoodloo of Iran and had to settle for a draw.
The draw left Erigaisi still a half point behind the leading duo of Daneshwar and Shankland.
Important and Indian results round 7 (Indians unless stated): Aravindh, Chithambaram (5) lost to Bardiya Daneshvar (Iri, 5.5): Amin Tabatabaei (Iri, 5) drew with Alexey Sarana (Srb, 5); Hans Moke Niemann (USA, 4.5) lost to Sam Shankland (USA, 5.5); Erigaisi Arjun (5) drew with Parham Maghsoodloo (Iri, 4.5); V Pranav (4) lost to Volodar Murzin (Fid, 5); Sankalp Gupta (4.5) beat Dea, Bogdan-Daniel (Rou, 3.5); Shamsiddin Vokhidov (Uzb, 4.5) beat) Nihal Sarin (3,5) Leon Luke Mendonca (4.5) beat Temur Kuybokarov (Uzb, 3.5); Abhimanyu Puranik (4.5) beat P Iniyan (3.5); Raunak Sadhwani (3.5) drew with Bharath Subramaniyam (3,5); Aditya Mittal (2.5) lost to Yag Erdogmus (Tur, 3.5); Abhijeet Gupta (2.5) lost t0 Pranav Anand (3.5); Jahongir Vakhidov (2,5) drew with Raja Rithvik (2.5); Nikolzi Kacharava (Esp, 1.5) lost to S P Sethuraman (2,5); Aditya Samant (2) drew with Jacub Seemann= (Aze, 2)[ Alisher Suleymenov (Uzb, 2.50 beat D Harika (1.5).
