Sharjah Masters: Abhijeet draws, retains half-point lead

Abhijeet Gupta’s four-win sequence ends with a 26-move draw with UAE’s Salem Saleh; three all-India encounters also end in draws.

FILE PHOTO: Abhijeet Gupta (right) has 4.5 points after five rounds.

Abhijeet Gupta’s four-win sequence ended with a 26-move draw with UAE’s Salem Saleh in the fifth round of the Sharjah Masters chess tournament in Sharjah, on Wednesday.

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The result saw Abhijeet (4.5 points) keep his half-a-point after the second board encounter involving sixth seeded Romanian Bogdan Daniel Deac and Turkey’s Mustafa Yilmaz (4 each) ended in a draw. Aryan Chopra, Aravindh Chithambaram and Aditya Mittal were the only Indians to win while all three all-India encounters ended in draws.

This included the one involving S. L. Narayanan and B. Adhiban that lasted 106 moves.

• Salem Saleh (UAE, 4) drew with Abhijeet Gupta (4.5);
• Ranuak Sadhwani (3) drew with Arjun Erigaisi (3);
• S. L. Narayanan (3) drew with B. Adhiban (2.5);
• D. Gukesh (3) drew with S. P. Sethuraman (2.5);
• Surya Shekhar Ganguly (2.5) lost to Hans Moke Neimann (USA, 3.5);
• Abhimanyu Puranik (3) drew with Jules Moussard (Fra, 3);
• Aryan Chopra (3) bt Olga Badelka (FIDE, 2);
• Nataliya Buksa (Ukr, 2) lost to Aravindh Chithambaram (3);
• Ilyas Msellek (Mar, 2) drew with Nihal Sarin (2);
• Sankalp Gupta (2) drew with Mert Erdogdu (Tur, 2);
• Aditya Mittal (2.5) bt Meruert Kamalidenova (Kaz, 1.5).