Al Ain (UAE), May 13 (PTI) Overnight sole leader Woman Grandmaster Srija Seshadri made sure she did not slip too much as she earned a hard-fought draw against the highest-ranked Indian woman player Vantika Agrawal to remain in joint lead after the seventh round of the Asian continental women's chess championship here on Tuesday.

With her second draw in seven games, Srija took her tally to six points and is now sharing the lead with Mongolian Mungunzul Bat-Erdene, who put it across P V Nandhidhaa.

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In the 'Open' section, things did not change much as the leader, Bardiya Daneshvar was held to a draw by Ivan Zemlyanskii of Russia, while the second-placed Indian Murali Karthikeyan also drew with another Russian Sergei Lobanov.

It is strange why the Russians are playing in the Asian event for the first time but the decision seems to have likely been taken because they can no longer participate in European tournaments due to the conflict with Ukraine.

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With two more rounds to come, the competition is wide open in the women's section, while Daneshvar seems to be on course for a gold medal triumph.

Important results (Round 7)

Open (Indians unless stated): Ivan Zemlyanskii (Fid, 5.5) drew with Bardiya Daneshvar (Iri, 6); Murali Karthikeyan (5) drew with Sergei Lobanov (Fid, 5); Yang Zilong (Chn, 4.5) lost to Shamsiddin Vokhidov (Uzb, 5.5); M Pranesh (5) drew with GB Harshavardhan (5); Nihal Sarin (5) beat Rinat Jumabayev (Kaz, 4); Amin Tabatabaei (Iri, 4.5) drew with Raja Rithvik (4).5; Dai Changren (Chn, 4.5) drew with Nodirbek Yakubboev (Uzb, 4.5); Denis Makhnev (Kaz, 4.5) drew with A R Saleh Salem (UAE, 4.5); Abhimanyu Puranik (5) beat Sina Movahed (Iri, 4); S Aswath (4.5) drew with Xu Xiangyu (Chn, 4); Lev Zverev (Fid, 4.5) drew with P Iniyan (4.5); Bai Jinshi (Chn, 4.5) drew with A R Ilamparthi (4); Huang Renjie (Chn, 5) beat Bharath Subramaniyam (4); Jiang Haochen (Chn, 4) lost to Pranav Anand (5);

Women: Vantika Agrawal (5.5) drew with Srija Seshadri (6); PV Nandhidhaa (5) lost to Mungunzul Bat-Erdene (Mgl, 6); Valentina Gunina (Fid,5.5) beat Batkhuyag Munguntuul (Mgl, 4.5); Anastasia Bodnaruk (Fid, 5.5) beat Olga Girya (Fid, 4.5); Xeniya Balabayeva (Kaz, 5) drew with Song Yuxin (Chn, 5); Swati Ghate (5) drew with Pham Le Thao Nguyen (Vie, 4.5); Tokhirjonova Gulrukhbegim (Uzb, 5) beat Elnaz Kaliakhmet (Kaz, 4); Galina Mikheeva (Fid, 4.5) drew with Padmini Rout (4); B Savitha Shri (4.5) drew with Rouda Essa Alserkal (UAE, 4.5).

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)