Bled (Slovenia): Surya Shekhar Ganguly became the eighth Grand Master (GM) of the country after an easy draw with Grand Master Iosef Dorfman in the 12th round of 35th Chess Olympiad here which also saw the 24th seed Indian men's team hold 11th seed France to a draw.

The Indian men drew all their boards to take their tally to 28 points. Indian women defeated Germany 2-1 to move to joint 10th position on 21.5 points with two more rounds remaining.

Top seed Russia with 34.5 points, continued to dominate in the men's section and defeated Croatia 2.5-1.5 to maintain a two-point lead over nearest rival Hungary.

Ninth seed Armenia provided the shocker of the day as it defeated third seed Ukraine 3-1 to jump to sole third position on 30 points.

Defending champions China eventually caught up with leaders Georgia in the women's section. Georgia suffered its second successive defeat, going down to Vietnam 1-2, while China drew 1.5-1.5 with Armenia.

Both China and Georgia have 25.5 points apiece and are followed closely by Russia on 25 points.

Ganguly achieved his third and final GM norm quite effortlessly. Playing white against Dorfman on the second board after Indian think-tank rested GM P Harikrishna, Ganguly played it safe with the white pieces and employed the Rossolimo variation against Sicilian defence. The draw was agreed to in just 12 moves at Ganguly's behest when the position was just level.

PTI