Indian Grandmaster Vidit Santhosh Gujrathi settled for a draw against Dutchman Anish Giri in the fifth round to stay in joint lead with 3.5 points at the Tata Steel Masters.
Azerbaijan's Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Richard Rapport posted victories in round five late on January 20 and joined Vidit Gujrathi at the top of the standings in the 13-round tournament.
The other five games, hard fought, were drawn. World No.1 Magnus Carlsen and Andrey Esipenko trail the leaders by half a point.
The other Indian GM in the fray, R. Praggnanandhaa, went down to Rapport and remained in the bottom half of the standings with two points.
In his match against Gujrathi, Anish Giri surprised the Indian GM with his line choice in the Petroff Defence and got an edge, but one somewhat abstract, rule-of-thumb move on his part allowed the leader to initiate massive exchanges in the centre and equalise completely.
The game ended in a stalemate in 33 moves.
In his match against Rapport, Praggnanandhaa squandered a couple of good attacking opportunities and after an error on move 17, the Hungarian got the upper hand and worked hard to secure a win in 56 moves.
Carlsen could not break down the defences of Sweden's Nils Grandelisus and shared the point.
In the Challengers event being played simultaneously, Indian GM Arjun Erigaisi is in sole lead with 4.5 points after five rounds. He beat talented, young Russian Volodor Murzin in round five in a 71-move game.
Meanwhile, Erigaisi's compatriot Surya Shekhar Ganguly defeated Germany's Roven Vogel to move up to 3.5 points and fourth place in the standings.
Standings after Round 5
Masters: 1-3. Vidit Gujrathi, Richard Rapport, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov – 3.5 points, 4-5. Magnus Calsen, Andrey Esipenko – 3, 6-8. Fabiano Caruana, Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Jorden Van Foreest – 2.5, 9-13. Sam Shankland, Sergey Karjakin, Daniil Dubov, Anish Giri, Praggnanandhaa – 2, 14. Nils Grandelius – 1.
