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Harikrishna held by Movsesian
January 18, 2008 | Corus 2008, News
Grandmaster P Harikrishna played out an exciting draw with GM Sergei Movsesian of Slovakia in the fifth round of the ‘B’ Group of Corus International Chess tournament now in progress here.
Having won the fourth round after a tough fight with Wouter Spoelman of the Netherlands, Harikrishna had his chances against Movsesian too but the latter kept himself in the game with some resourceful display.
Harikrishna moved to 3.5 points out of a possible 5 in the category-15 event and is now in sole second spot behind Etienne Bacrot of France who defeated Jan Smeets of Holland to take his tally to 4 points in all.
With eight rounds still to come, Movsesian and Dutch trio of Smeets, Daniel Stellwagen and Erwin L’Ami are in joint third spot with 3 points each. In the enxt round Harikrishna will meet Smeets and starts as favourtie with white pieces.
Playing black against Movsesian, SUN-Group sponsored Harikrishna faced the Italian game and soon the players were on less trodden path as Harikrishna employed a recently popular system. Getting what is termed as ‘dynamic balance’ in chess jargon, the Indian made progress along the central files and was on top following an error by Movsesian.
The game took another turn soon after as Harikrishna made a mistake and suddenly Movsesian found himself cruising along fine with two pieces for a rook. The resulting position however had some technical problems and Harikrishna played some imaginative moves to keep himself in the game. In the end Movsesian simply lost his extra piece and reached a drawn opposite coloured Bishops endgame.
The other Indian in the fray in ‘B’ group - Koneru Humpy – played out a draw with Gabriel Sargissian of Armenia.
‘In the ‘A’ group world champion Viswanathan Anand’s hunt for his first victory in 2008 did not end as he signed peace with Levon Aronian of Armenia in quick time. Anand took his tally to 2 points out of a possible five with his fourth draw in as many days.
Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan joined overnight leaders Aronian and Norwegian Magnus Carlsen in lead defeating Pavel Eljanov of Ukraine in the ‘A’ group.
Grandmaster Parimarjan Negi continued with his winning ways in the ‘C’ group, accounting for Anna Ushenina of Ukraine for his third straight victory.
Results round 5:
‘A’ Group: Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Aze, 2.5) beat Loek van Wely (Ned, 2.5); Pavel Eljanov (Ukr, 1) lost to Teimour Radjabov (Aze, 3.5); Michael Adams (Eng, 2.5) drew with Vladimir Kramnik (Rus, 3); Levon Aronian (Arm, 3.5) drew with Viswanathan Anand (Ind, 2); Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukr, 2.5) drew with Magnus Carlsen (Nor, 3.5); Judit Polgar (Hun, 3) drew with Peter Leko (Hun, 2.5); Veselin Topalov (Bul, 2) beat Boris Gelfand (Isr, 1)
Group ‘B’: Daniel Stellwagen (Ned, 3) drew with Nigel Short (Eng, 2.5); Wouter Spoelman (Ned, 0.5) drew with Yifan Hou (Chn, 2); Sergei Movsesian (Svk, 3) drew with P Harikrishna (Ind, 3.5); Jan Smeets (Ned, 3) lost to Etienne Bacrot (Fra, 4); Ian Nepomniachtchi (Rus, 2.5) drew with Michal Krasenkow (Pol, 2); Erwin L’Ami (Ned, 3) beat Ivan Cheparinov (Bul, 2.5); Koneru Humpy (Ind, 1.5) drew with Gabriel Sargissian (Arm, 2).
Group ‘C’: Friso Nijboer (Ned, 3) beat Irina Krush (Usa, 1); Parimarjan Negi (Ind, 3) beat Anna Ushenina (Ukr, 0.5); Zhaoqin Peng (Ned, 1.5) drew with Shilong Li (Chn, 2); Mark van der Werf (Ned, 2) drew with John van der Wiel (Ned, 3); D Ruijgrok (Ned, 0.5) drew with Arik Braun (Ger, 4.5); Dmitri Reinderman (Ned, 3.5) beat Pontus Carlsson (Swe, 3); E. Grivas (Gre, 3) drew with Fabiano Caruana (Ita, 4)
For tournament pictures, click here