Chennai, Jun 25 (PTI) Indian International Master Nitin Senthilvel settled for a draw with compatriot and fellow IM Ravichandran Siddharth in the ninth round lead to stay on top of the standings with 8 points in the 13th Chennai Open International Grandmaster Chess Tournament 2022 here on Saturday.

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The draw in the top board saw Nitin's lead being cut to half a point as GM Boris Savchenko (Russia), Alexei Federov (Belarus), Aronyak Ghosh, Him all Gusain (both India) moved to 7.5 points.

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On Friday, tournament leader Nitin missed a win against top seed Grandmaster Savchenko and today he held the upper hand against Siddharth who just hung on to snatch a draw. The final round is scheduled for Sunday.

Results: Round 9 (Indians unless specified) : Nitin S (8) drew with Ravichandran Siddharth (7), S Prasannaa (6.5) lost to Boris Savchenko (Russia) 7.5, P Konguvel (6.5) lost to Alexei Fedorov (7).Aronyak Ghosh (7.5) beat Baghdasaryan Vahe (Armenia) 6.5, Him all Gusain (7.5) beat Daakshin Arun (6.5), Kunal M (6.5) drew with Deepan Chakkravarthy J (6.5), Aaryan Varshney (6.5) drew with Kiril Stupak Kirill (6.5), Ajay Karthikeyan (6.5) drew with Saravana Krishnan P (6.5), Priyanka K (6) lost to Srihari L R (7),R R Laxman (6.5) drew with Jubin Jimmy (6.5), Nguyen Van Huy (Vietnam) 7 beat Hirthickkesh P R (6), Rajesh V A V (7) beat Pranav K P (6), Samriddha Ghosh (5.5) lost to Hari Madhavan N B (6.5).

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