NAGPUR: A day after five of the 23 participating Indian masters led the table with full points, four young leaders drew their respective third round games to share the second position in the Serbia Open at the Metropol Palace Hotel in Belgrade on Sunday.
At the end of the second day, nine players led the chart with three full points and four Indian masters - Grandmasters Nihal Sarin, Raunak Sadhwani and Arjun Erigaisi, and unseeded Pranav V - with 35 others following the leaders closely at 2.5 points.
In the third-round action, all the leading Indian youngsters were forced to sign a peace treaty by their respective lower-ranked opponents.
On the sixth board, eighth seed Nihal tried to defend with his black pieces but ended up splitting points with 53rd ranked Bulgarian GM Petar Arnaudov in an exciting 78-move contest. "I tried hard and kept pressing to break him, but he kept defending and was really playing to just be solid. So, I had to settle for a draw," Nihal told TOI.
Similarly, 21st seeded and 2567 Elo GM Arjun found it tough to utilize his opening advantage with the white pieces and after a marathon 104-move battle, signed a truce with 60th ranked IM Drasko Boskovic from Serbia.
Maharashtra's youngest and Nagpur's lone GM Raunak played out the longest tie in the third round but failed to carve out a full point against unseeded Pranav V. The 14th board's drawn game between the two Indian youngsters was the last to finish on the second day. Though the game was played for 42 moves, both had equal pawns and pieces on the board and despite trying many variations, the two young guns ended up splitting the points.
