Grandmaster Pendyala Harikrishna settled for a draw against Ruslan Ponomariov in the 10th round of the Aerosvit International Grandmasters Chess tournament in Crimea, Ukraine on Tuesday.

Five other games also ending in stalemate meant status quo was maintained with regard to players' position in category-18 tournament, with one more round remaining.

Harikrishna and Ponomariov signed the peace treaty after 36 moves. Ponomariov opted for the Tartakower defence against the Queen's Gambit.

He played the early middle game with spirit and offered his Queen on the 18 move for sufficient compensation. Harikrishna spurned the offer but could not find a way to stop his opponent from getting a fine position.

Slowly the pieces got exchanged and the players agreed to split the point in an equal rook ending.

Tournament leader GM Sergei Rublevsky of Russia [Images] and second placed Ukrainian GM Vassily Ivanchuk drew after repetition of moves.

Rublevsky played 3.Bb5ch against Ivanchuk's Sicilian Defence and the game continued along the orthodox theoretical line. Neither player could wrest the initiative and a struggle developed for possession of the "c" file, the only open file on the board.

This resulted in a repetition of moves and the game was drawn after 29 moves through three-fold repetition.

The presence of opposite coloured bishops on board, allowed Moldovan Grandmaster Viktor Bologan to escape with a draw in his game against Alexander Grischuk.

Bologan seems to be impressed by Rublevsky's success in the tournament. In his game against Grischuk he chose 3. Bb5ch, the tournament leader's favourite weapon against the Sicilian.

The opening, which he uses sporadically, did not serve him equally well.

Grischuk won a pawn on the 19th move with energetic play in the centre and Bologan was forced into a rook and bishop ending with a pawn less.

However, the presence of opposite coloured bishops created technical difficulties for Grischuk and Bologan was able to split the point after 78 moves with stubborn defence.

The draw enabled Bologan to hang on to third place in the standings.

Spanish Grandmaster Alexei Shirov seemed to be heading towards a smooth victory against GM Areshchenko but a terrible blunder by him on the 51st move, suddenly put Areshchenko in a winning position.

The exchange up ending was easily winning for Areshchenko but he forced the game into a pawn ending which he could not win.

Nisipeanu's played the Sozin attack against the Sicilian Najdorf played by Sergei Karjakin.

The battle became very exciting in the middle game as Nisipeanu sacrificed a bishop and gained strong attack against the black king which was stranded in the centre.

Karjakin defended with a cool head and Nisipeanu was forced to bail out with a draw by perpetual check.

The game between Volokitin and Mamedyarov ended in a draw by agreement after 27 moves in a Ruy Lopez game.

• Complete chess coverage