Date:06/01/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/01/06/stories/2007010609691800.htm

Sport - Chess

Hari to meet Morozevich

NEW DELHI: P. Hari Krishna is due to face the top-seeded Russian Alexander Morozevich in the first round of the inaugural ACP World Chess Cup in Odessa, Ukraine.

The two-game battle is the first of the four first-round matches slated for Saturday.

On Friday, Hungary's Peter Leko shut out Holland's Ivan Sokolov in just 21 moves of their second game to become the first quarterfinalist following a 1.5-0.5 victory.

Sokolov and Leko drew the first game in 71 moves. In the second, Leko played white and quickly seized control of the Ruy Lopez game. He lined up his rooks on the kingside while positioning his queen and bishop well. Sokolov found no way of escaping defeat and resigned at once.

The other first-round pairings are: Rublevsky-Naiditsch; Smirin-Shirov; Gelfand-Nakamura; Hari-Morozevich; Radjabov-Bareev; Bologan-Bacrot; Ivanchuk-Amonatov.