Grandmaster Krishnan Sasikiran drew with highly-rated GM Michal Krasenkow of Poland to find himself in a joint four-way lead on two points after the third round of the 18th North Sea Cup International chess tournament in Esbjerg, Denmark, on Monday.

Top seed and hot favourite GM Alexey Dreev of Russia failed to break the solid defences of GM Bruzon Lazaro and had to settle for a draw while Luke McShane joined the three overnight leaders with a resounding victory over out-of-form former world junior girls champion GM Koneru Humpy.

Four players -- Krasenkow and Danish trio of GMs Lars Schandorff, Curt Hansen and Hastings champion Peter Heine Nielsen -- shared the fifth spot with 1.5 points each to their credit while Cuban GM Lenier Dominiguez was in ninth place on one point.

Humpy was languishing at the bottom of the table, suffering her third loss in as many rounds. Six more rounds remain to be played in this 10-player all-play-all tournament.

Seeded second, Sasikiran looks in fine fettle to give Dreev a run for his money. In his game against Krasenkow, the opening was an irregular Dutch where Sasi, playing white, got a miniscule advantage.

Krasenkow apparently had done some homework which came handy as he quickly wiped out white's superior center and exchanged a handful of pieces in the early middle game.

Sasikiran had made a temporary pawn sacrifice in trying to work out an advantage and Krasenkow returned the favour on the 25th move to steer the game to a drawn Rook and pawns endgame where the peace treaty was signed after 27 moves.

Humpy was caught in one of the variations of the Vienna opening with black pieces. The Englishman launched just the right kind of attack and enjoyed the initiative till the very end with an exchange sacrifice in the initial stages of the game. Humpy tried to hold her position together by returning the extra material but by then the result was a foregone conclusion.

McShane emerged with two extra pawns after the complications subsided and it took him 40 moves to register his first full point in the tournament.

Peter Heine Nielsen came back into reckoning after a disastrous loss to Lazaro in the second round and crushed Dominiguez who played black. It was another game of the day that was won while just out of the opening as Nielsen's  understanding of a rather less-played endgame arising out of the Panov Botvinnik variation of the Caro Kann proved much superior.

The pieces got exchanged in a heap and by the 14th move itself two minor pieces, Queens and a couple of pawns changed hands. However, Nielsen got a definite advantage in lieu of his superior piece deployment and he steadily swept the queenside pawns to carve a win in 41 moves.

Dreev did not find any weakness in Lazaro's endgame technique as the Cuban defended a slightly inferior Knights  and pawns endgames quite well to snatch half a point in 62 moves. Earlier the two had battled out the Queen's Gambit  declined where the Russian played white.

In the other game of the day, which was an all-Danish affair, Lars Schandorff drew with Curt Hansen. These two and Krasenkow have so far drawn all their games.

Results Round 3: K Sasikiran (2) drew Michal Krasenkow (1.5, Pol); Alexey Dreev (2, Rus) drew Bruzon Lazro (2, Cub); Luke McShane (2, Eng) beat Koneru Humpy (0); Peter Heine Nielsen (1.5, Den) beat Lenier Dominguez (1, Cub); Lars Schandorff (1.5, Den) drew Curt Hansen (1.5, Den).

Moves:

K Sasikiran v/s M Krasenkow

1. Nf3 d5 2. d4 c6 3. c4 e6 4. Nbd2 f5 5. g3 Nf6 6. Bd6 7. O-O O-O 8. Ne5 c5 9. Ndf3 Nc6 10. cxd5 exd5 11. Bf4 cxd4 12. Rc1 Nxe5 13. Bxe5 Bxe5 14. Nxe5 Qb6 15. Qb3 Re8 16. f4 d3+ 17. Qxb6 axb6 18. exd3 Rxa2 19. Rc7 Rxb2 20. Rfc1 Be6 21. Rxb7 d4 22. Rcc7 Rxg2+ 23. Kxg2 Bd5+ 24. Kh3 Bxb7 25. Rxb7 Ng4 26. Nxg4 fxg4+ 27. Kxg4 Re3 draw agreed.

Luke McShane v/s Koneru Humpy

1. e4 e5 2. Nc3 Bc5 3. f4 d6 4. Nf3 Nf6 5. Bc4 Nc6 6. d3 a6 7. Rf1 Bg4 8. h3 Bxf3 9. Qxf3 Nd4 10. Qg3 Nxc2+ 11. Kd1 Nxa1 12. Qxg7 Rf8 13. fxe5 dxe5 14. Bg5 c6 15. Rxf6 Qd7 16. Rf5 f6 17. Bxf6 Qxg7 18. Bxg7 Rxf5 19. exf5 b5 20. Be6 Rd8 21. f6 Rxd3+ 22. Ke2 e4 23. Bh6 Rd4 24. f7+ Kd8 25. Bf5 Rb4 26. b3 Nxb3 27. Nxe4 Rxe4+ 28. Bxe4 Nd4+ 29. Kd3 Ne6 30. Bxc6 Ke7 31. Be4 Nf8 32. Bd5 Kf6 33. Bd2 Ne6 34. Be4 Nf8 35. Bb7 Kxf7 36. Bxa6 b4 37. Kc4 Ba7 38. Kxb4 Nd7 39. Bc4+ Ke7 40. Bd3 black resigned.