Five Indians — S.P. Sethuraman, M. Karthikeyan, D. Harika, Shardul Gagare and P. Iniyan — were part of 23-player leaders’ group at 2.5 points after three rounds of Abu Dhabi Masters chess tournament here.
GM Harika eked out a draw against GM GM Kirill Stupak from Belarus.
Important results (involving Indians):Third round: Idani Pouya (Iri, 2.5) drew with S.P. Sethuraman (2.5); Stupak Kirill (Blr, 2.5) drew with D. Harika (2.5).
Aryan Chopra (1.5) lost to Amin Baseem (Egy, 2.5); Abhimanyu Puranik (2) drew with Anton Korobov (Ukr, 2.5). Abhijeet Gupta (1.5) lost to Valery Sviridov (Rus, 2.5); Raja Harshit (2) drew with Salem Saleh (UAE).
Adly Ahmed (Egy, 2) drew with Nihal Sain (2); Mircea-Emilian Parligras (Rom, 1.5) lost to Shardul Gagare (2.5).
P. Iniyan (2.5) bt Robert Hovhannisyan (Rom, 1.5); Parham Maghsoodloo (Iri, 2) drew with N.R. Vignesh (2); Sreeja Seshadri (2) drew with Alexander Fier (Bra, 2). M. Karthikeyan (2.5) bt Neelotpal Das (1.5).