Khanty Mansiysk (Russia): Grandmaster Boris Gelfand drew the first blood in the fight for fifth to eighth places and defeated Belgian GM Mikhail Gurevich in the first game of the two-games mini-match of the World Chess Cup now in progress here.

Russian GM Alexey Dreev was the only other winner in the fight for 13-16 places after he beat compatriot Konstantin Sakaev. The easy draws between the semi-finalists meant that there might be some more action as both matches might go to the tiebreaker if the players achieve the same results in the return games on Tuesday.

Frenchman Etienne Bacrot drew with white pieces against Armenian Levon Aronian, the other semi-finalist. As many as six out of eight games ended in a deadlock .

Dreev’s encounter against Sakaev did not enthuse many as both of them are out of the title race anyway. Dreev clinched the issue after 39 moves.

Amongst other games of the day, the top match between Grischuk and former world champion Ruslan Ponomariov lasted just 16 moves.