Dos Hermanas (Spain): World junior champion P. Harikrishna settled for his third draw in a row but still grabbed the joint second spot after the third round of the category 16 Dos Hermanas chess tournament here.

Harikrishna settled for a draw against top seed Alexey Dreev of Russia while Ukrainian boy-wonder Sergey Karjakin registered a fantastic win over Lenier Dominguez of Cuba and overnight joint leader Cordoba lost to Russia?s Alecamder Rustemov.

Karjakin, meanwhile, emerged as the sole leader on 2.5 points from possible three.

Harikrishna, along with Dreev, defending champion Rustemov, his compatriot Oleg Korneev, Zurab Azmaiparashvili of Georgia, Temour Radjabov of Azerbaijan, Ruben Felgear of Argentina and local star Miguel Illescas Cordoba are behind the leader with 1.5 points apiece while Cominguez just has 0.5 point in his kitty.

Dreev, who has an Elo rating of 2703 points, started with his pet Slav Defence as black and did not look in any trouble right till the end of the game even though only Harikrishna was seen pressing for victory for the major part.

The middle game witnessed a series of exchanges, giving Harikrishna a miniscule advantage in the ensuing rook and opposite colour bishops endgame and precise piece play enabled him to knock down one pawn on the king side.

However, the nature of the position remained within the boundaries of a draw and after fighting it for 87 moves, the players decided to sign peace.

Karjakin showcased his positional side against Dominguez who played the black side of a Sicilian Nazdorf. Employing the sharp English attack, the Ukrainian was in control of the situation right from the early stages of the middle game and gave little chance after knocking down a pawn.