Hyderabad: Kidambi Sundararajan drew with Hao Wang of China in the penultimate round of the fifth Asian Chess Championship and needs half a point to get his Grandmaster norm.

Kidambi played a cautious game against his opponent and they agreed for a truce which gave the young Indian 5 points in eight matches which took his Elo rating to 2598.

Neelotpal, on the other hand, needed 1.5 points for his GM norm, but lost to Surya Sekhar Ganguly, thus ending his chances of acquiring the norm in the meet.

Himanshu Sharma kept his chances alive by winning against Orazly Annageldyev of Turkmenistan and needs one full point to get his GM norm with one game to go.

In another encounter, Koneru Humpy paid the price for an unusual mistake as she went down to Ni Hua of China in a game involving Neno Defence.

Humpy, playing white, matched her opponent in all aspects of the game including strategy, attack, positioning and providing space for her pieces, and was locked in a keen tussle involving a couple of rooks and a queen.

The Indian, who declined the truce offer in the 16th move, blundered by taking a pawn with queen in the 37th and resigned in the 39th move.

Li Shilong of China agreed for a quick draw with Murtas Kazhgaleyev of Kazakhstan and leads the table with 6.5 points.

Top seed Krishnan Sasikiran, playing white side of Slav Defence, scored an easy win over Sergeyu Kayumov of Uzbekistan.

The first 10 players in the tournament will be selected for the World Cup to be held in Russia.