Kolkata, Sep 7 (IBNS) GM Nigel Short of England managed to draw a hard fought battle against GM Sandipan Chanda in the sixth round of the 4th Kolkata Open Grandmaster Chess Tournament which is being held at Alekhine Chess Club,Gorky Sadan.

He played the offbeat Nimzowitsch defence and managed to get equality very quickly in the opening but Sandipan attacked relentlessly and Short after playing some defensive maneuvers got in some counter play. Both players eventually agreed to split the point in a position which looked slightly better for Sandipan. Two other players now share the lead with Sandipan . GM Viktor Laznicka of theCzech Republic and Le Quang Liem of Vietnam.

GM Viktor Laznicka played an attacking game with the black pieces against GM Ziaur Rahman to join the leaders. He took some risks and was rewarded for his persistence.The game lasted fifty four moves.

GM Le Quang Liem was the other victor on the top boards. He defeated GM Enamul Hossain of Bangladesh in forty two moves. The Bangladeshi played the Kings Indian defence and lost a pawn on the queenside his game deteriorated after a few more moves and he gave up the fight in a hopeless position.

As many as eight players are in the second spot half a point adrift of the leaders. These include Indian Grandmasters Surya Sekhar Ganguly , Parimarjan Negi,Magesh Chandran and IM B.Adhiban.

Surya who is a strong finisher won his game against GM Abhijit Kunte to come back into the reckoning for the top spot.

International Master B.Adhiban continued to impress and he held the higher ranked GM Eltaj Safarli of Azerbaijan in twenty six moves of a Sicilian defence game.

FM Sahaj Grover continued his excellent run against the Grandmasters accounting for Super Grandmaster Gadir Guseinov of Azerbaijan.

Other youngsters who impressed were Vidit Santosh Gujrathi who drew his game against another Super GM Aleksej Aleksandrov of Belarus , the young local boy Sayantan Das who accounted for Somak Palit and Shayam Nikhil who drew against GM G.N.Gopal.