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Harikrishna draws with Sargissian, joint fifth now
January 25, 2008 | Corus 2008, News
Grandmaster P Harikrishna played out a draw with Gabriel Sargissian of Armenia in the 10th round of Corus International Chess tournament at Wijk Aan Zee in Holland.
Harikrishna again got a slightly better position and for another time in the tournament his form betrayed him a bit as Sargissian came back strongly in this Italian opening game. The middle game saw some fireworks from Sargissian and the Armenian was on top when the Queens got traded. It was an endgame wherein Harikrishna had to do a lot of hard work with his knight taking on dancing on the chequered board. With a pawn less, it is not easy to defend the knight endgames but Harikrishna posed enough problems for Sargissian to liquidate to a drawn endgame.
With only three rounds to come Harikrishna will need a couple of victories for a pedestal finish. In the next round Harikrishna is slated to play Ivan Cheparinov of Bulgaria.
As things stand in ‘B’ group, Sergei Movsesian of Slovakia seems to be running away with the title here with 7.5 points already in the bag from first 10 rounds. Sharing the second spots are Etienne Bacrot of France and Nigel Short of England on 6.5 points each while another half point adrift is Russian Ian Nepomniachtchi. Harikrishna is currently joint fifth in the event and can possibly finish in top three with an improved performance in the remaining games.
The other Indian contestant in the ‘B’ group, Koneru Humpy has not had a great tournament thus far and she too would be keen to finish on a positive note. The result for Humpy have been quite unlike her thus with one victory, a couple of losses and seven draws. In her 10 th roundgame Humpy was held to a draw by Yifan Hou of China. In the 11th round Humpy plays against Daniel Stellwagen of Holland.
Meanwhile a lot of action was witnessed yet again in the ‘A’ group. Anand remained in joint third spot after drawing with Leko and inching up to 5.5 points. The high point of the day was Norwegian Magnus Carlsen’s remarkable recovery against local favourite Loek van Wely. It was a completely lost position for Carlsen when disaster struck van Wely in mutual timescramble.The positionfirst became a draw and later the Dutchman blundered again to give the point in a platter.
A lucky Carlsen thus regained the sole lead as most of the games in this section ended in draws. The Norwegian took his tally to 6.5 points and Levon Aronian of Armenia is now in second spot with 6 points in his kitty. A pack of five players – Michael Adams of England, Vladimir Kramnik of Russia, Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine and Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan including Anand are still in reckoning for top honours on 5.5 points each in the premier group.
Parimarjan Negi recovered smartly in the ‘C’ group and is now in the joint second spot on 6.5 points. The tournament leader in this section – Fabiano Caruana was beaten by Li Shilong of China.
Results round 10 Group A: Loek van Wely (Ned, 4) lost to Magnus Carlsen (Nor, 6.5); Viswanathan Anand (Ind, 5.5) drew with Peter Leko (Hun, 5); Vladimir Kramnik (Rus, 5.5) drew with Boris Gelfand (Isr, 3.5); Teimour Radjabov (Aze, 5.5) drew with Veselin Topalov (Bul, 5); Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Aze, 5) drew with Judit Polgar (Hun, 4.5);
Pavel Eljanov (Ukr, 3) lost to Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukr, 5.5); Michael Adams (Eng, 5.5) drew with Levon Aronian (Arm, 6).
Group B: Nigel Short (Eng, 6.5) beat Michal Krasenkow (Pol, 4); Etienne Bacrot (Fra, 6.5) drew with Ivan Cheparinov (Bul, 5); P. Harikrishna (Ind, 5.5 ) drew with Gabriel Sargissian (Arm, 3.5); Hou Yifan (Chn, 4) drew with Koneru Humpy (Ind, 4.5); Daniël Stellwagen (Ned, 5) drew with Erwin L’Ami (Ned, 5.5); Wouter Spoelman (Ned, 2)
lost to Ian Nepomniachtchi (Rus, 6); Sergei Movsesian (Svk, 7.5) beat Jan Smeets (Ned, 4.5).
Group C: Irina Krush (Usa, 4.5) beat Arik Braun (Ger, 5); John van der Wiel (Ned, 5.5) drew with Pontus Carlsson (Swe, 5); Li Shilong (Chn, 5) beat Fabiano Caruana (Ita, 7); Anna Ushenina (Ukr, 4.5) beat Efstratios Grivas (Gre, 4.5); Friso Nijboer (Ned, 6.5) beat Dimitri Reinderman (Ned, 6.5); Parimarjan Negi (Ind, 6.5) beat Dennis Ruijgrok
(Ned, 1.5); Peng Zhaoqin (Ned, 3) drew with Mark van der Werf (Ned, 5).
For tournament pictures, click here