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Harikrishna draws with Stellwagen
January 16, 2008 | Corus 2008, News
Grandmaster P Harikrishna played out a hard-fought draw as black against GM Daniel Stellwagen of Holland in the third round of the ‘B’ group of Corus International Chess tournament at Wijk Aan Zee.
The SUN-group sponsored Harikrishna slipped to joint third spot on 2 points after the draw but it was expected as he was playing against a formidable opponent in Stellwagen, known as the vastly improving Dutch.
In what was the biggest upset of the event thus far, Chinese sensation Yifan Hou demolished highly regarded Nigel Short of England. In the ‘B’ group all but Hari’s game ended decisively taking local hopeful Jan Smeets and Frenchman Etienne Bacrot at the top of the tables on 2.5 points.
Harikrishna had to defend for sometime in the endgame against Stellwagen who went for a recently popular system in the Marshall gambit. After initial exchanges the players arrived at a routine endgame where Harikrishna had a pawn less typical of the system but he outcome of the game was never in doubt. The peace was signed when only the last white pawn remained.
Humpy went down to Erwin L’Ami in another group ‘B’ clash while Parimarjan Negi scored his first victory at the expense of John Van Der Wiel in the ‘C’ group.
It was a rather sedate day in the premier Group ‘A’ as all the seven games ended in draws. Anand was held early by Eljanov who played interesting chess only for a few moves and then sought solace in equalizing. Magnus Carlsen and Levon Aronian continue to lead the tables on 2.5 points out of a possible 3.
Results round 3 ’A’ group: Teimour Radjabov (Aze, 2) drew with Loek van Wely (Ned, 1.5); Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Aze, 1) drew with Vladimir Kramnik (Rus, 1.5); Pavel Eljanov (Ukr, 1) drew with V. Anand (Ind, 1); Michael Adams (Eng, 1.5) drew with Magnus Carlsen (Nor, 2.5); Levon Aronian (Arm, 2.5) drew with Peter Leko (Hun, 1.5); Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukr, 1.5) drew with Boris Gelfand (Isr, 1); Judit Polgar (Hun, 1) drew with Veselin Topalov (Bul, 1).
Group B: Results: Yifan Hou (Chn, 1) beat Nigel Short (Eng, 1.5); Daniel Stellwagen (Ned, 2) drew with P. Harikrishna (Ind, 2); Wouter Spoelman (Ned, 0) lost to Etienne Bacrot (Fra, 2.5); Sergei Movsesian (Svk, 2) beat Michal Krasenkow (Pol, 1); Jan Smeets (Ned, 2.5) beat Ivan Cheparinov (Bul, 1.5); Ian Nepomniachtchi (Rus, 2) beat Gabriel Sargissian (Arm, 1); Erwin L’Ami (Ned, 1.5) beat Koneru Humpy (Ind, 0.5)
Group C: Results: Anna Ushenina (Ukr, 0.5) drew with Irina Krush (Usa, 1); Friso Nijboer (Ned, 1) beat Shilong Li (Chn, 2); Parimarjan Negi (Ind, 1) beat John van der Wiel (Ned, 2); Zhaoqin Peng (Ned, 0.5) lost to Arik Braun (Ger, 3); Mark van der Werf (Ned, 1.5) drew with Pontus Carlsson (Swe, 2); D. Ruijgrok (Ned, 0) lost to Fabiano Caruana (Ita, 3); Dmitro Reinderman (Ned, 2) drew with E. Grivas (Gre, 1.5).