Grandmaster Abhijit Kunte started the new year with a dreary draw against Ukrainian sensation Kateryna Lahno in the fifth round of the Hastings International Chess Congress in Hastings, England, on Friday.

As the fifth round yesterday failed to produce even a single decisive game, the lead positions and tournament standings remain unchanged.

With four rounds left in the 79th edition of the traditional tournament, top seeded Grandmaster Vladimir Epishin of Russia and Cyprus Grandmaster Vasilios Kotronias maintain a slender half point lead over Grandmasters Mark Hebden of England and Jonathan Rowson of Scotland -- who are on three points apiece.

Kunte is joint fifth along with International Master Alexander Cherniaev of Russia and Danish Grandmaster and defending champion Peter Heine Nielsen, on 2.5 points.

Englishmen, Grandmaster Stuart Conquest, International Master Daniel Gormally and Lahno jointly hold eighth place with 1.5 points in their kitty.

Of all the games, Kunte's was the shortest, lasting just 19 moves. The Indian, who beat Nielsen in the previous round, did not look in a fighting mood and that was perhaps the reason for his rather safe approach in the opening with white pieces.

Finding herself in a Catalan set-up after some routine transposition, Lahno played correctly to keep her position intact and attained equality at the time of the peace agreement.

The remaining games were fought harder although they failed to produce results.

Kotronias faced the Tchigorin variation of the Ruy Lopez as white against Hebden and allowed the latter to get away with an easy game after some quick exchanges.

Hebden was only required to find the right path to get the draw and he did it with precision.

Stuart Conquest and Nielsen, who played black, got off to a rather unusual opening which led to a rather dull looking middle game where Nielsen livened up the proceedings with a positional queen sacrifice for two pieces and a pawn.

Conquest tried to make a foray for some time but agreed for a draw on the 45th move.

Among three International Masters in the fray, only Cherniaev has some real chances of a GM norm and he retained his hopes with an entertaining draw against Jonathan Rowson in a Sicilian Alapin game where the latter played black.

In another game, Epishin was held to a draw by Gormally.

Results (Round 5):

Vasilios Kotronias (3.5, Cyp) drew Mark Hebden (3, Eng); Daniel Gormally (1.5, Eng) drew Vladimir Epishin (3.5, Rus); Stuart Conquest (1.5, Eng) drew Peter Nielsen (2.5, Den); Abhijit Kunte (2.5) drew Kateryna Lahno (1.5, Ukr); Alexander Cherniaev (2.5, Rus) drew Jonathan Rowson (3, Eng).

Standings: 1-2: Kotronias, Epishin 3.5 each; 3-4: Hebden, Rowson 3 each; 5-7: Kunte, Cherniaev, Nielsen 2.5 each; 8-10: Lahno, Gormally, Conquest 1.5 each.