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Chess
Harikrishna maintains lead
HASTINGS, JAN. 3. Grandmaster Pendyala Harikrishna maintained a slender half point lead with an easy draw with GM Petr Kiriakov of Russia after the fifth round of the premier tournament of the Hastings International chess congress here.
Harikrishna has 3.5 points and is followed by Kiriakov, GMs K. Sasikiran, Joe Gallagher (Switzerland) and Alexei Barsov of Uzbekistan.
The fifth round action was not devoid of excitement and produced two decisive results amidst hard fought games. Sasikiran drew with GM Mark Hebden without much ado with black, while Barsov was let off the hook by IM Pert Nicholas of England who messed up a winning position to draw after 65 moves.
The day's winners were Gallagher, who outplayed an off-form IM Irina Krush of the U.S., and top-seeded GM Zhang Zhong of China, who scored his first victory in the tournament, against GM Peter Wells of England.
In the Challengers tournament, top-seeded veteran GM Vitaly Tsheshlovsky of Russia was joined in the lead by IM Zvonko Stanojoski of Macedonia with 5 points after the sixth round.
Tsheshlovsky was involved in a draw with IM Daniel Gormall of England, while Stanojoski capitalised on his chances to put it across IM Sergei Azarov of Belarus.
GM Dibyendu Barua slipped to joint 13th position with 4 points after drawing with IM Simon Williams of England from the white side of a king pawn game.
Woman Grandmaster S. Vijayalakshmi and IM P. Konguvel remained on 3.5 points going down to IM John Shaw (Scotland) and GM James Plaskett (England) respectively but GM Pravin Thipsay came back in to the reckoning with a convincing victory over English rookie Bert Addison and moved to 4 points.
Also scoring victories were IMs D.V. Prasad, Neeraj Kumar Mishra, Lanka Ravi and International Woman Master Aarthie Ramaswamy, who all have 4 points apiece.
Harikrishna did not have to do much to get a desirable draw against Kiriakov with the black pieces. India's youngest GM opened with the Slav defence but the game was transposed into a Queen's Gambit exchange variation by the Russian stalwart.
The opening witnessed an early trade of light square bishops after which it became increasingly difficult for white to press for an advantage. Playing energetically in the middlegame, Harikrishna opened the queenside and voluntarily opted for an isolated queen pawn to give his pieces a lot of air. Kiriakov could do nothing against the black weak pawn structure and it was more of a shadow boxing that he fought till his 32nd move.
Playing black, Sasikiran too did not face any difficulties as Hebden side-tracked from the popular variations against the Queen's Gambit accepted. The Englishman, who is yet to score a victory here, kept away from the complexities of a wild middlegame and exchanged the knights in the centre to shield his queen pawn. The resulting position was just equal and truce was signed in 19 moves.
Irina Krush failed to live up to expectations yet again and spoiled a dynamically balanced middlegame against Gallagher.
It was a sharp Sicilian Sveshnikov that Irina chose with the black pieces and appeared to have done well in the middlegame. However, as Gallagher went for the exchange of pieces, Irina did not succeed in maintaining the pressure and was struggling in the ensuing bishop and pawns endgame before losing in 65 moves.
Zhang Zhong wriggled out of opening troubles and found his opponent Peter Wells off guard in the complications to win a pawn from the black side of the King's Indian defence.
Dejected with the way he handled the middlegame, Peter Wells called it day after 32 moves, obviously not wanting to face a long agony in a lost position.
The results:
Premier (fifth round): Petr Kiriakov (3.5, Rus) drew with P. Harikrishna (3.5); Mark Hebden (2, Eng) drew with K. Sasikiran (3); Joe Gallagher (3, Sui) bt Irina Krush (1, U.S.); Pert Nicholas (2.5, Eng) drew with Alexei Barsov (3, Uzb); Peter Wells (1.5, Eng) lost to Zhang Zhong (2.5, Chn).
Challengers (round 6): Daniel Gormally (4.5, Eng) drew with Vitaly Tsheshlovsky (5, Rus); Aimen Rizouk (4.5, Alg) drew with Glenn Flear (4.5, Eng); Zvonko Stanojoski (5, Mkd) bt Sergei Azarov (4, Blr); Dibyendu Barua (4) drew with Simon Williams (4, Eng); Emanuel Berg (4.5, Eng) bt Stephen Mannion (3.5, Sco); S. Vijayalakshmi (3.5) lost to John Shaw (4.5, Sco); P. Konguvel (3.5) lost to James Plaskett (4.5, Eng); Keith Arkell (4.5, Eng) bt Joerg Wegerle (3.5, Ger); Simon Knott (3.5, Eng) lost to Alexander Cherniave (4.5, Rus); S. Stanislav (4.5, Blr) bt Thomas Rendle (3.5 Eng); Amon Simutowe (4.5, Zam) bt Jurgen Brustkern (3, Ger); D.V. Prasad (4) bt Neil Berry (3, Sco); Pravin Thipsay (4) bt Bert Addison (3, Eng); Lanka Ravi (4) bt Heather Richards (3, Eng); Timothy Woodword (3, Eng) lost to Neeraj Kumar Mishra (4); Aarthie Ramaswamy (4) bt Nigel Donovan (3, Eng); Nisha Mohota (3.5) drew with T. Roussel-Roozmon (3.5, Can); Saheli Barua (2.5) lost to Colin Crouch (3.5, Eng); S. Meenakshi (3.5) drew with Daniel McGowan (3, Sco); Calvert David (3, Eng) drew with Bhagyashree Thipsay (3); Swati Ghate (3) bt Roger de Coverly (2, Eng); Udi Weisbuch (3, Isr) bt Viraf Avari (2).
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