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Harikrishna remains in joint lead

TORQUAY (ENGLAND) Aug. 6. GM P. Harikrishna overwhelmed GM Peter Wells of England to remain in joint lead with GM Joseph Gallagher of Switzerland and GM Luke McShane of England after the seventh round of the Smith and Williamson British Open chess championship here.

The three leaders have 5.5 points apiece and they are followed by seven players including India's National Champion GM Abhijit Kunte and World Junior Girls Champion WGM Koneru Humpy on 5 points each.

Not far behind is top seed GM Krishnan Sasikiran who disposed of Pert Richards in a one sided game to get back to his familiar winning ways. Sasikiran is on 4.5 points along with 14 others.

Four more rounds remain in this £10,000 first prize championship.

Harikrishna displayed top form in crushing Wells. Playing with the black pieces, the Indian opened with the Sicilian defence and expectedly faced the Rossolimo attack by Wells.

Not content with a simple equality in the opening, Wells went for unwarranted complications in the middlegame and was saddled with a rather innocuous position that gave Harikrishna all the chances to launch an attack on the King.

Deploying his Queen perfectly, Harikrishna did just the needful and forced Wells to part with an exchange on the 26th move. Seeing no hope for any counter play, Wells called it a day on his next turn.

Koneru Humpy drew with GM Jonathan Rowson with the black pieces. Dibyendu Barua went down fighting against Gallagher, while Abhijit Kunte accounted for Evans-Quek Suan Shiau.

Important results: Seventh round (Indians unless specified): Jon Speelman (5, Eng) drew with Matthew Turner (5, Eng); Peter Wells (4.5, Eng) lost to P. Harikrishna (5.5); Jonathan Rowson (5, Sco) drew with Koneru Humpy (5); Luke McShane (5.5, Eng) bt Pert Nicholas (4.5, Eng); Joseph Gallagher (5.5, Sui) bt Dibyendu Barua (4.5); R.B. Ramesh (4.5) drew with S.S. Ganguly (4.5); Evans-Quek Suan Shiau (4, Eng) lost to Abhijit Kunte (5); Sandipan Chanda (4.5) bt Paul Littlewood (4, Eng); K. Sasikiran (4.5) bt Pert Richard (3.5, Eng); Bhagyashree Thipsay (3) lost to Glenn Flear (4, Fra); S. Vijayalakshmi (3.5) drew with S. Meenakshi (3.5); Jonathan Grant (4, Eng) bt Aarthie Ramaswamy (3); V. Saravanan (3.5) bt David Howell (2.5); Swati Ghate (3.5) bt Norman Hutchinson (2.5, Eng); Trevor Cooty (2, Eng) drew with Saheli Barua (2.5). — PTI

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