Indian challenge in the ongoing World Cup Chess ended with Grandmaster Pentala Harikrishna's defeat in the tie-break of Round three against mighty Russian Grandmaster Alexey Dreev in Khanty-Mansyisk on Monday.

Harikrishna lost the first game of the tie-break and could only manage a draw in the second after a long fight, thereby losing 1.5-2.5 in aggregate.

After losing the first rapid game, Harikrishna played the second very cautiously with white pieces, opening with d4. Dreev replied with d5 and the game turned towards Queen's Gambit Declined Semi-Slav variation. The Indian gave a check to the black king on the 28th move but the Russian repulsed the half-baked attack with ease.

After some moves, Harikrishna lost all his pawns and found Dreev materially superior, and with hardly any time on the clock, agreed for a draw.

Round 3 tie-break results: Carlsen, Magnus (NOR) beat Cheparinov, Ivan (BUL) 3-1; Bacrot, Etienne (FRA) beat Sutovsky, Emil (ISR) 3-1; Shulman, Yuri (USA) lost to Grischuk, Alexander (RUS) 1.5-2.5; Jobava, Baadur (GEO) lost to Rublevsky, Sergei (RUS) 1.5-2.5; Van Wely, Loek (NED) beat Radjabov, Teimur (AZE) 2.5-1.5; Harikrishna, Pentala (IND) lost to Dreev, Alexey (RUS) 1.5-2.5; Vallejo Pons, Francisco (ESP) beat Efimenko, Zahar (UKR) 2.5-1.5; Bareev, Evgeny (RUS) beat Bruzon (CUB) 2.5-1.5; Pantsulaia, Levan (GEO) lost to Gelfand, Boris (ISR) 2-4; Najer, Evgeniy (RUS) lost to Lautier, Joel (FRA) 2.5-3.5; Smirin, Ilia (ISR) lost to Kamsky, Gata (USA) 2.5-3.5

- UNI

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