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Harikrishna survives a scare in Corus opener

January 15, 2008 | Corus 2008, News

Grandmaster P Harikrishna survived a few anxious moments before settling for a draw with ’settled-in-Greece’ English GM Nigel Short in the first round of the Corus group ‘B’ chess tournament now in progress in the Dutch hamlet Wijk Aan Zee.

Playing white Harikrishna came up with an opening surprise on the first move itself as Short was not expecting to him to open with the King pawn. The Englishman, who had also trained Harikrishna a few years back, opted for the French defense and was in for surprise in one of the off-beat variations.

Harikrishna won the opening battle as Short’s pieces were saddled with the task of defense and the Sun-Group sponsored Hyderabad-based came up with a queen sacrifice to get a better position. However, as Short put up stiff resistance, Harikrishna did not strike the best possible plan and gave up a minor piece to sustain his attack against Short’s king.

Harikrishna

 
As things happened, Harikrishna eventually had to battle with his two Bishops against Short’s queen and found a draw in the end vide repetition of moves.The day sprang a major surprise in the ‘A’ group as World champion Viswanathan Anand went down to Teimour Radjabov. The Indians did not have a good day generally as Koneru Humpy in the ‘B’ group and Parimarjan Negi in the ‘C’ group also suffered defeats.For more details on the event please visit the official site www.coruschess.com 

Complete results round 1:

Group ‘A’: Levon Aronian (Arm) beat Veselin Topalov (Bul); Teimour Radjabov (Aze) beat Viswanathan Anand (Ind); Vladimir Kramnik (Rus) drew with Loek Van Wely (Ned); Michael Adams (Eng) drew with Boris Gelfand (Isr); Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukr) drew with Judit Polgar (Hun); Pavel Eljanov (Ukr) drew with Peter Lékó (Hun); Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Aze) lost to Magnus Carlsen (Nor)

Group ‘B’: Daniel Stellwagen (Ned) beat Michal Krasenkow (Pol); Jan Smeets  (Ned) beat Koneru Humpy (Ind); Ian Nepomniachtchi (Rus) drew with Erwin L’Ami (Ned); Sergei Movsesian (Svk) drew with Gabriel Sargissian (Arm); P Harikrishna (Ind) drew with Nigel Short (Eng); Hou Yifan (Chn) lost to Etienne Bacrot (Fra); Wouter Spoelman (Ned) lost to Ivan Cheparinov (Bul).

Group ‘C’: Li Shilong (Chn) beat Irina Krush (Usa); Mark Van der Werf (Ned) beat Efstratios Grivas (Gre); Peng Zhaoqin (Ned) lost to Caruana Fabiano (Ita); Friso Nijboer (Ned) lost to Arik Braun (Ger); Parimarjan Negi (Ind) lost to Pontus Carlsson (Swe); Anna Ushenina (Ukr) lost to John Van der Wiel (Ned); Dennis Ruijgrok (Ned) lost to Dimitri Reinderman (Ned).

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