Vidit, Harikrishna finish with draws

Nakamura in semifinals

Hikaru Nakamura escaped with a draw to join Levon Aronian as the second semifinalist of the FIDE Grand Prix chess tournament in Berlin on Thursday.

Out of the reckoning for a spot in the semifinals, Vidit Gujrathi and P. Harikrishna were involved in drawn battles in the sixth and final league round.

In the semifinals, Nakamura plays the winner of the tie-break games between Radoslaw Wojtaszek and Richard Rapport. Aronian awaits the winner of the other tie-breaker featuring Americans Wesley So and Leinier Dominguez Perez.

Sixth-round results:

Group A: Andrey Esipenko (USA, 3.5) drew with Hikaru Nakamura (USA, 4); Alexander Grischuk (Rus, 3) bt Etienne Bacrot (Fra, 1.5).

Group B: Grigoriy Oparin (Rus, 2) drew with Radoslaw Wojtaszek (Pol, 3.5); Vladimir Fedoseev (Rus, 3) lost to Richard Rapport (Hun, 3.5).

Group C: Levon Aronian (USA, 4.5) drew with Daniil Dubov (Rus, 3); Vidit Gujrathi (3) drew with Vincent Keymer (Ger, 1.5).

Group D: Leinier Dominguez Perez (USA, 4) bt Alexei Shirov (Esp, 1.5); Wesley So (USA, 4) drew with P. Harikrishna (2.5).