Indians face an uphill task

K Visveswaran, Sriram Jha and Aarthie Ramaswamy provided some consolation for India by winning their boards and garnering useful points.

Overnight winner Sandipan Chanda (2431), also on 5.5 points as Ramesh, continued with his good form to earn a creditable draw against higher-rated GM Arencibia (2513) from Cuba. Ramesh (2467) faced some anxious moments against IM Pilgaard (2334) of Denmark before agreeing for a truce. Dinesh Kumar Sharma (2355) let young IM Paraguay (2412) of the Philippines escape with a draw from the black side of the centre gambit opening after enjoying a pawn advantage right from the beginning.

Paraguay created lot of confusion for the lost pawn and the players entered a rook and bishop ending with Sharma enjoying a slight advantage but that was not sufficient and the players agreed to split the point.

IM Estremera Panos (2372) of Spain beat Rahul Shetty (2325) from the white side of the queens gambit exchange variation. IM Vasilev of Bulgaria played for a draw and got it against Chandrasekhar Gokhale (2326) from the white side of the queen pawn opening.

Important results: GM Z Sturua (7.5) drew with GM Ebacrot (7.5), GM S Sulskis (7.5) drew with GM Z Zhang (7.5), GM M Kobalija (7) lost to GM G Kacheishvilli (7.5), IM Sandipan Chanda (5.5) drew with GM Walter Arencibia (5.5), IM R B Ramesh (5.5) drew with IM K Pilgaard (5.5), M Paraguay (5) drew with D K Sharma (5), Perez Candelario (4) lost to K Visweswaran (5), A Potapenko (4) lost to Sriram Jha (4.5), R Aarthie (4.5) bt S Galochkin (3.5), M Vasilev (4.5) drew with C S Gokhale (4.5), Estremera Panos (5) bt Rahul Shetty (4).