The Hindu : Sport / Chess : Harikrishna holds Gelfand

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Feb 03, 2005

Sport

Sport - Chess

Harikrishna holds Gelfand

BERMUDA, FEB. 2. Grandmaster P. Harikrishna held Grandmaster Boris Gelfand of Israel to a draw in the third round of the International chess invitational tournament here to remain in joint third spot.

Brazilian GM Giovanni Vescovi, who played a fine positional game to beat Lenier Dominiguez of Cuba, joined Gelfand in the lead.

With the leaders on two points from three games, Harikrishna shared the third spot with Dominiguez and Ukrainian champion Andrei Volokitin who beat Bartlomiej Macieja of Poland.

So far the category 17-event has produced 4 decisive games out of a possible 9 .

In the three games played by him so far, the Indian has faced higher rated opposition and even draws will help him add important rating points to his present ELO of 2632.

The Gelfand-Harikrishna game was a simple case of active forces for both sides. Playing the Slav, Gelfand, black, never let the position slip out of hand and so did Harikrishna who showed aggression right from the beginning.

If Harikrishna's queenside castling gave proof that he does not shy away from complexities even against big names of the game, Gelfand's creativity held him in good stead as after his attempted onslaught against the king came to a naught, the Israeli promptly guided his forces towards defence.

Harikrishna, sensed some advantage coming his way when Gelfand parted with his Bishop pair for knights but the resulting position petered out to a draw as subsequent exchanges led to a drawn rook and minor piece endgame. The game lasted 37 moves.

The results (third round): Giovanni Vescovi (Brazil, 2) bt Lenier Dominguez (Cuba,1.5); P. Harikrishna (Ind, 1.5) drew with Boris Gelfand (Isr, 2); Bartlomiej Macieja (Pol, 0.5) lost to Andrei Volokitin (Ukr, 1.5). — PTI

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