Parimarjan slips to joint third after tame draw

Grandmaster Parimarjan Negi slipped to joint third after settling for an easy draw with GM Viorel Iordachescu of Moldova in the seventh round of the 12th Dubai Open International chess tournament here on Monday.

Negi,who was in joint lead till a couple of rounds earlier,was never in any kind of trouble against Iordachescu,who just played it safe with white pieces to split points with Negi,according to information recieved here. With this draw,Iordachescu managed to hold on to his lead with six points,though he now has to share it with Grandmaster Tornike Sanikidze of Georgia,who beat Gadir Guseinov of Azerbaijan in a keenly contested game. Negi,meanwhile,shares the third spot with Sergey Volkov of Russia,Vladimir Baklan of Ukraine,Merab Gagunashvili of Georgia,

Negi played the Sicilian defense with black pieces and elicited a harmless set up from Iordachescu. The pieces were exchanged at regular intervals and it was a minor piece endgame on board when the players decided to split the point on move 30.

Among other Indians,Abhijeet Gupta bounced back into title contention at the expense of fellow Indian IM M Shyam Sundar in a Berlin defense game,with Gupta’s superior endgame skills helped him outplay Sundar.