Indian challenge ends at world chess

Das had earlier held his famous rival to a draw twice in the normal time control in the two-game match but failed to keep the momentum ticking in the rapid chess.

India fielded five players in the championship but stalwarts Krishnan Sasikiran, Dibyendu Barua and Surya Shekhar Ganguly crashed out in the first round itself and with the ouster of Harikrishna and Das in round two the team will return home early. The championship is being played under knockout format with two games to start with and in case of a draw two tiebreak games played in rapid and blitz chess.

Top seed Grandmaster Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria proceeded to the third round with back-to-back victories over compatriot Alexander Delchev. Also moving to the next round was Romanian Liviu-Dieter Nisipainu who drew his second game against Dutch GM Sergei Tiviakov after winning the first game.

Harikrishna lost both the tiebreak games against Ivanchuk.

The Indian had beaten Chinese GM Xu Jun in round one and though he was clearly the underdog against Ivanchuk none had ruled out a surprise result especially as the Ukrainian is also known for his idiosyncrasies on and off the board.