Kerala's Ahaz E U held fifth seed Sanikidze Tornike of Georgia to a draw in the fourth round of the 1st GM International organised by the Kottayam Chess Academy in Kottayam on Friday.

Top seed GM Karen Grigoryan of Armenia, GM Levan Pantsulaia, IM VAV Rajesh and WIM Theresa Diajeng Singgih extended their perfect start by making it four wins out of four.

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Meanwhile, Ahaz, 15 and Tom Joseph, 14, are the two Malayalis among the bunch that trails the joint leaders by half a point. The Kerala duo is unbeaten so far.

Telangana teenager Deekshitha Modipalli, who made a terrific start with an upset win over second seed GM Manuel Petrosyan before holding GM Evgeniy Podolchenko to a draw, lost to Karnataka's A Balkishan. She has 2.5 points.

Petrosyan, who won the Maharashtra GM International in April, bounced back with victory over Kerala's A Arush to remain in the hunt on 3 points.

Ahaz has white against Armenian GM Karen Movsziszian in the fifth round to be played on Saturday. Tom is up against Russian GM Borish Savchenko.

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