Harikrishna in joint lead

Grandmaster Pendyala Harikrishna scored a brilliant victory over Grandmaster Alexei Barsov of Uzbekistan to emerge joint leader after the seventh round in the 65th Hastings chess tournament in England.

Harikrishna (4.5 points) shares the lead with GM Keith Arkell of England and GM Peter Heine Nielsen of Denmark.

In joint fourth place are GM Krishnan Sasikiran, who drew with English GM Glenn Flear, and Barsov, with 4 points apiece, while GM Luke McShane of England and GM Sergey Karjakin follow them on 3.5 points each.

With just two more rounds to go, Harikrishna looks set to retain the title he won jointly last year with Barsov and Sasikiran.

However, the 16-year old Indian might find it difficult to get to the score of 6.5 points which he achieved quite comfortably in the previous edition.

In the next rounds Harikrishna will face Nielsen, with black pieces, and Flear, with white. Nielsen has a tough customer in last round in the form of Arkell, who has to play the "wounded" Barsov in the next round.

Harikrishna's endgame skills happen to be amongst the best in India. And if Barsov had any doubts, they were categorically cleared after he received a through pounding at the hands of former world under-10 champion.

The game started with a Queen pawn game and Harikrishna bid adieu to his favourite Catalan opening, sensing this was his best chance to forge ahead. The initial phase was fought in one of the main variations of the Queen's Gambit declined, wherein Barsov was thoroughly confused by Harikrishna's rapid strides on the 64 squares.

In the middle game Harikrishna posted his minor pieces in the middle board and exerted pressure on the king side with a well-chalked plan. Even as the pieces got exchanged at regular intervals, the Indian maintained a firm grip on the game with his dark square Bishop spitting fire.

Barsov defended well to arrive at a Queen and minor piece endgame but did not succeed in solving all his problems. The Uzbek made a major error on thr 34th move after which Harikrishna played decisive breakthrough that netted him a pawn after the trade of queens. The Indian romped home in 47 moves.

Sasikiran, who has failed to produce anything outstanding in this tournament so far, was held to a draw by Flear in the seventh round. This was the sixth draw from seven matches for the Indian who registered his lone win of the competition in the previous round against Nielsen.

Despite the modest show, however, the Indian is still in with a chance to catch up with the leaders as he will meet McShane and lowly placed GM Vitaly Tsshkovsky in the next two rounds.

Sasikiran went for a pawn sacrifice on the 18th move, counting on his development advantage but did not get a desirable result as Flear was quite up to the task. The exchange of queens on the 21st move led to a level endgame wherein subsequent exchanges forced a draw after 68 moves.

Nielsen took advantage of a rather lacklustre play by world women's championship runner-up, woman Grandmaster Alexandra Kosteniuk of Russia and had little trouble in converting a better queen and pawns endgame in to a full point.

Earlier the two were involved in a Caro Kann defence where the Danish played black.

Arkell won his postponed sixth round game against Tseshkovsky after defending a slightly inferior position and drew with Karjakin in just 16 moves in the seventh round to find himself in joint lead while oldest competitor Tseshkovsky held McShane to a draw.

Results round 7:

P Harikrishna (4.5) beat Alexei Barsov (Uzb, 4); Keith Arkell (Eng, 4.5) drew Sergey Karjakin (Ukr, 3.5); Krishnan Sasikiran (3.5) drew Glenn Flear (Eng, 3); Luke McShane (Eng, 3.5) drew Vitaly Tseshkovsky (Rus, 1.5) Alexandra Kosteniuk (Rus, 2) lost to Peter Heine Nielsen (Den, 4.5).

Standings after round 7:

1-3 Harikrishna, Arkell, Nielsen; 4-5 Sasikiran, Barsov; 6-7 McShane, Karjakin; 8. Flear; 9. Kosteniuk; 10. Tseshkovsky.

The moves:

P Harikrishna v/s Alexei Barsov

1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 d5 3. c4 e6 4. Nc3 Be7 5. cxd5 exd5 6. Bg5 c6 7. Qc2 g6 8. e3 Bf5 9B Bd3 Bxd3 10. Qxd3 Nbd7 11. h3 O-O 12. O-O Re8 13. Bf 4 Nb6 14. Rab1 a5 15. Rbe1 Ne4 16. Ne5 f6 17. Ng4 f5 18. Ne5 Bd6 19. Nxe 4 fxe4 20. Qe2 Qe7 21. f3 Bxe5 22. Bxe5 Nc4 23. Bf4 exf3 24. Rxf3 Nd6 25. Ref1 Ne4 26. Be5 Rf8 27. Rf4 Rxf4 28. Rxf4 h5 29. Qe1 Qb4 30. Qf1 Rf8 31. Kh2 Rxf4 32. exf4 Qf8 33. Qe1 Qd8 34. Qe3 Qh4 35. f5 Qg5 36. Qxg5 Nxg5 37. fxg6 Ne4 38. h4 Nf2 39. Kg3 Nd3 40. Bf6 Nxb2 41. Kf4 Nd3+ 42. Ke3 Ne1 43. g4 hxg4 44. Kf4 Nd3+ 45. Kxg4 Nf2+ 46. Kf5 Ne4 47. Be5 black resigned.

K Sasikiran v/s Glenn Flear

1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. e3 e6 5. Bd3 Nbd7 6. O-O Bd6 7 . Nc3 O-O 8. e4 dxe4 9. Nxe4 Nxe4 10. Bxe4 h6 11. Bc2 e5 12. b4 exd4 13. c5 Bc7 14. Bb2 Ne5 15. Nxd4 Re8 16. f4 Ng4 17. Qd3 Nf6 18. Rae1 Rxe1 19. Rxe1 Bxf4 20. g3 Bc7 21. Nxc6 Qxd3 22. Ne7+ Kf8 23. Bxd3 Be6 24. Ng6+ Kg8 25. N f4 Bxa2 26. Bxf6 gxf6 27. Re7 Bxf4 28. gxf4 Bd5 29. Rd7 Bc6 30. Rd6 a6 31. Kf2 Kg7 32. Be2 Rc8 33. Bg4 Rc7 34. Rd8 Be4 35. Rd7 Rxd7 36. Bxd7 Kf8 37. Ke3 Bg2 38. Kd4 Ke7 39. Ba4 Bf3 40. Bb3 Bc6 41. Bc4 Ke8 42. Ba2 Ke7 43. Bd 5 Bxd5 44. Kxd5 Kd7 45. h3 Kc7 46. Ke4 Kc6 47. Kf5 Kb5 48. Kxf6 Kxb4 49. Kxf7 a5 50. f5 a4 51. f6 a3 52. Kg6 a2 53. f7 a1=Q 54. f8=Q Qg1+ 55. Kxh6 Qe3+ 56. Kg6 Qg3+ 57. Kf7 Qf2+ 58. Ke8 Qxf8+ 59. Kxf8 Kxc5 60. h4 b5 61. h5 b4 62. h6 b3 63. h7 b2 64. h8=Q b1=Q 65. Qe5+ Kc4 66. Qc7+ Kb3 67. Qb7+ Ka2 68. Qxb1+ Kxb1 draw agreed.