Biel Chess festival: Nihal Sarin settles for draw with Keymer

After the battle of teenagers, the 17-year-old Indian GM moved to 25.5 points while his 16-year-old opponent has 21.5 points.

File picture of Nihal Sarin.

India's Nihal Sarin drew his game against Vincent Keymer of Germany in the fifth round of the classical event in the Grandmaster Triathlon being played as part of the Biel Chess Festival on Monday.

The two were involved in a 45-move draw which lasted over four and a half hours.

After the battle of teenagers, the 17-year-old Indian GM moved to 25.5 points while his 16-year-old opponent has 21.5 points.

Sarin had performed impressively in the Blitz section, racking up eight wins and three draws from 14 rounds.

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American veteran Gata Kamsky remained on top after the fifth round of the Classical event with a win over Alan Pichot of Argentina. He now has 29.5 points and is at least 1.5 in the clear of the second-placed player.

In another match of the day, Boris Gelfand scored over Maxime Lagarde (France).

Two more rounds remain to be played in the classical section of the Grandmaster Triathlon which also includes Rapid and Blitz events.

In the Master Tournament, a part of the Biel Chess Festival, Indian Grandmaster Karthikeyan Murali continued to stay on top of the points table following a draw with Ukraine GM Pavel Eljanov.

The 37-move draw took Murali to six points from seven rounds while Eljanov and Indian GM Arjun Erigaisi are on 5.5 points.

Erigaisi scored over Frenchman Alexis Tahay to join Eljanov in joint second place.

Indian GMs including Surya Shekhar Ganguly, teenage stars R Praggnanandhaa and D Gukesh are in joint third spot with three others on five points.

Ganguly settled for a draw against Gregely Kantor while Praggnanandhaa defeated fellow Indian N R Visakh and Gukesh trumped Alessio Valescchi (Italy).