Harikrishna draws with Ivanchuk

Harikrishna, who fought till the last move, could not do much against the solid play of Ivanchuk, the finalist of the last World Championship held in Moscow in 2001.

The opening was quite similar to what Xu Jun had lost playing against the Indian in the first game of the first round but Ivanchuk had done his home work coming before coming to this game.

The oft-repeated Capablanca variation gave Hari a level position after the exchange of queens, and in his own words “the game fluctuated between positions slightly better for him or equal”. The usual trading saw the game landing to an opposite colour bishops endgame wherein the draw was agreed to in 53 moves.

Das was up against an English opening by Anastesian, who failed to get a desirable advantage with white pieces. Neelotpal played the middle game in masterly fashion after going for a position akin to the Sicilian dragon with colours reversed and timely exchange of pieces led to a perfectly balanced endgame. The truce was signed in just 30 moves.

The other results of the second round were on predictable lines with top seeded Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria making mince-meat of compatriot Grandmaster Alexander Delchev.

Pavel Smirnov also had it easy against Elarbi Abobaker of Libya who had won by default in the first round owing to the last minute withdrawal of second seed GM Alexander Morozevich of Russia.

Grandmaster Kritz Leonid of Germany who had beaten India’s best bet Krishnan Sasikiran in the first round match failed to live up to expectations against Brazilian GM Rafael Leitao and went down with his white pieces.