Grandmaster Erigaisi Arjun was held to a draw by Alexey Sarana of Serbia and a second straight loss for Aravindh Chithambaram almost ended the Indian hope in the Sharjah Masters chess tournament here on Wednesday.

Bardiya Daneshvar of Iran, Sam Shankland of USA and Volodar Mulzin of Russia emerged as the co-leaders on six points with just one round remaining in the USD 52000 prize money tournament.