Kunte (4.5), after two successive morale boosting wins, was expected to at least draw his game against the Uzbek but his progress was halted. The Indian needed eight points out of 12 games to make it to the GM norm but with only three games remaining, his chances are over.

Neelotpal Das drew his round with Bangladesh's IM Zia-Ur-Rahman, but has already fallen out of the race with just three points from nine games.Top seed English GM Nigel Short (9) shrugged off his poor form beating Polish GM Alexander Wojtkiewicz in another tie. This win allowed the World Number 11 to regain joint lead with Belarussian GM Yuri Shulman, who split points with IM Abdullah Al Rakib of Bangladesh.

Exciting ties ahead

LINARES: One game away from the midway stage of the City ofLinares Chess Tournament, expectations of some close and exciting clashes in the next few rounds of the tournament run high.

More so since Grandmasters Viswanathan Anand and Vladimir Kramnik, the second and third best players in the world, secured their first wins of the current super category-20 tournament after five straight draws.

And of course, chess wizard Garry Kasparov has been in excellent form winning two games, both with black and currently leads the field of eight super Grandmasters with four points from six rounds.

Anand and Kramnik lie second, half a point behind and in this level of chess, half point is hardly a lead any player can sit on.

Kasparov, who won the Hoogovens event recently is looking for another win while Anand, seeks to defend this title which he won convincingly last year.