Five-way tie at Dubai Open Chess Tournament

Top-seed Grandmaster (GM) Nihal Sarin scored an emphatic victory to bounce back into the lead after erstwhile co-leaders GM Mahammad Muradli and GM Aleksey Grebnev agreed to a quick, uneventful draw in Friday night's fourth round of the 25th Dubai Open Chess Tournament at the Dubai Chess and Culture Club.

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The three grandmasters have 3.5 points each and are joined in a five-way tie at the top by Indian players IM Rohith Krishna and GM Bharath Subramaniyam.

Sarin, who was held to a draw by Krishna in the third round, repulsed a daring attack against his king by Israel's GM Yair Parkhov in securing the win.

The Indian top-seed maintained a solid grip of the position and was poised to win material when Parkhov launched a kingside offensive punctuated by a rook sacrifice. Sarin did not have problems diffusing the attack and converting into an endgame where he was a piece up.

The 28th-seed Krishna continued his stellar performance as he took down the ninth-seed GM Pa Iniyan, his first GM victim in the tournament, in a fashionable Queen's Gambit opening.