Humpy draws with Malakhatko; shares three-way lead

Differdange, Luxembourg, July 12 (UNI) Indian Grandmaster Koneru Humpy marshalled her troops well to hold Belgian Grandmaster Malakhatko and share a three-way lead after the sixth round at the Kaupthing Open Chess Meet being played here at Woiwer Sports Complex.

Playing with black pieces, Humpy replied with Nf6 to his opponent Vadim Malakhatko's opening of d4 and later the game went towards Queen's Gambit Declined Ragozin variation.

Humpy had trouble in the opening on the queen side and tried hard for equality. In the middle game, she exchanged a strong knight on the e5 and somehow managed to equalise. Once the position on the board looked equal, she offered a draw which Malakhatko readily accepted.

''Today I played Ragozin with black pieces. After the opening, I had some trouble on the Queen Side but I manage to exchange the strong knight on e5 and later the position was almost equal for me.

I thought draw will be fine so I offered the draw which Malakhatko gladly accepted,'' Humpy told UNI after the game.

With four wins and two draws, Humpy now has five points and shares the top spot with Hungarian IM Viktor Erdos and Petr Velicka of Czech Republic.

Velicka, on top board, crushed Philip Schlosser in a Sicilian Game. He takes on co-leader Humpy in the next round.

The other Indian in the fray, Rohit G lost his Sicilian game to Latvian Grandmaster Viesturs Meijers. Right from the beginning, Rohit played a poor game and lost due to his bad black knight on the wrong Square.

Standing after Round 6: 1-3 Koneru Humpy, Viktor Erdos, Petr Velicka 4-11 Nenad Sulava, Tigren Gharamian, Vadim Malakhatko, Hanne Stefansson, Viestur Meijers, Michael Hoffman UNI