Gurgaon: Grandmaster Sahaj Grover maintained his joint lead after splitting the point with Russian GM Alexander Evdokimov in the sixth round of the second Gurgaon International Grandmasters chess tournament, here today.
Playing safe with dark pieces in Grunfeld defence game, Sahaj agreed to split the point with Evdokimov after 17 moves, consolidating his lead by 5.5 points in the Rs 10,11,000 prize money event.
In the other game, Ukranian Grandmaster Kravtsiv Martyn and second seed Oliver Barbosa also signed the peace treaty after 17 moves.
A pack of 11 players, including Grandmasters John Paul Gomes of Philippines, Tornike Sanikidze of Georgia and Raset Ziatdinov of USA, shared the joint second spot with five points.
Gomez beat Indian IM Vikramaditya Kulkarni while Sanikidze and Ziatdinov got the better of CRG Krishna and Tillayaev Ulugbek of Uzbekistan respectively in the sixth round. IMs Prasanna Rao and N Srinath split the point to be among the 11 players.
