But Indians had a mixed day with P Harikrishna losing to Laurent Fressinet (France). Their main hope K Sasikiran's lean patch continued as he struggled to a draw against teammate Vikramaditya Kamble, while Satyapragyan was forced to share points with Janz Frerik of Germany.

However Mahesh Chandran and Sandipan Chanda won.

In the girls section, IWM S Vijayalakshmi was sharing the third spot with three others, including compatriot Koneru Humpy.

Sadvakaov split the point with Jenni Florin (Switzerland) in the Guicco Piano opening in 37 moves after grabbing a pawn in the middle game. Florin was in the second position with five points. The second third and fourth board games also ended in draws as players preferred not to take risks before the rest day tomorrow.

Banikas Hristodoulos of Greece and second seed Zhang Zhong ofChina drew in 45 moves of Grunfeld defence. Kodalia (Russia) and Stelios (Greece) signed the truce after 15 moves of English opening and top-seed Dao Thien Hai (Vietnam) and Bojan Vuckovic (Yug) split the point in 40 moves of Kings Indian Defence.

Harikrishna met his match in ninth seed Fressinet. The French IM won in a rook and minor piece ending of French defence after 59 moves on the extra pawn he had.

Sasikiran could not get past the Kings Indian defence of Kamble, who sounded a warning to the more experienced rival by winning a pawn. The game was, however, drawn after 31 moves.

Satyapragyan sacrificed a rook and two minor pieces to get a mating attack against Frerik in Kings Indian defence but after 48 moves he had to take perpetual checks to get half points.

Harikrishna and Satyapragyan collected 3.5 points each while Sasikiran had three after six rounds.

Sandipan Chanda and Mahesh Chandran also reached three points each after defeating Abbasov Farid of Azerbaijan and Stinis Steven of Belgiumrespectively. Tejas Bakre drew with Danny Goldenberg of Canada.

In the girls' section, Thanh Thang Trang of Vietnam led the table with five points after drawing with top seed Monika Bobrowska of Poland, who was following along with Irina Krush of US half a point behind.

Vijayalakshmi (4) was sharing the third place with Joanna Dwarakoska of Poland, Lakos Nikolette of Hungary, Humpy, Ruth Sheldon (England) and Ratou Tatiana (Brazil).

Vijayalakshmi drew with Nikolette in 51 moves of Guico Piano while Humpy beat Lie Thi Huong of Vietnam. Pallavi Shah drew with Alena of Slovenia.

Placings (Indians)

Boys: 4 points: RR Laxman; 3.5: P Harikrishna, S Satyapragyan; 3: Soundderajan Kidambi, Krishnan Sasikiran, Vikramaditya Kamble, Tejas Bakre, Sandipan Chanda, P Mahesh Chandran; 2.5: Neelotpal Das; 2: K Ramu, Beenish Bhatia, Manthan Chokshi; 1.5: S Kherdekar, Praveen Menon, Uberoi, Gilford.Girls: 4 points: S Vijayalakshmi, Koneru Humpy; 3.5: Pallavi Shah, Swati Mohota; 3: Aarthie Ramaswamy, SwatiGhate; 2.5: Pratibha, Meenakshi.